A global journey…
Manchester United made it three English teams in the last four of the Champions League with a 1-0 win at Old Trafford against Roma to consolidate their 2-0 win in Rome last week.
Although Roma gave Manchester United a few problems, the gulf in class between the best team in England and the second best team in Italy was clear for all to see. Roma were admittedly without their talisman Totti, but United won this game with a half fit Rio Ferdinand and without Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra, Paul Scholes, Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo.
They now go on to face Barcelona in the semi-final which is a classic in the making. The games should be a wonderful spectacle but I fully expect Manchester United to come out on top. Barcelona look to be a shadow of their former selves at the moment and I can't see them stopping United's irresistible strike force.
I believe that if the draw had been different and Liverpool and Arsenal had been drawn out of the hat to face Barcelona and Schalke, we would now have all four English teams in the semi-finals.
The fact that England's top teams are doing so well is generally good for English football. I disagree with the arguments about the number of foreign players in the teams meaning that English players don't play at the highest level. In the Champions League quarter-finals England were represented by Theo Walcott, Jamie Carragher, Steve Gerrard, Peter Crouch, John Terry, Frank Lampard, Joe Cole, Wes Brown, Rio Ferdinand, Michael Carrick, Owen Hargreaves, Gary Neville and Wayne Rooney. That's thirteen English players playing at the very highest level. I'm not even including Colin Kazim-Richards!
The only down side to the situation for me is that the gulf in class that is developing is not between English football and the rest of Europe, it is between four English teams and the rest of Europe. The rest of the Premier League is losing ground to the big four all the time. The relative failure of our sides in the UEFA Cup is proof of that.
It's great for the fans of the big four and it is great for fans of England but fans of other English teams will be looking at the semi-finals with mixed feelings. The rich are getting richer and the best are getting better. Is there any hope left for the rest of us?
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