The Champions' League debate
It truly has been an erratic football season for Liverpool Football club this year.
They are 90min away from Champions' League glory yet a place in next season's competition lies in jeopardy.
For Man Utd fans, winning the European Cup means more than anything else. The Premier league have been won far too many times over the last decade. Too many FA cup finals and too many domestic glory but just one European trophy. I would rather drench myself in European cup glory champagne than win the FA cup or even win the league.
For the case of Liverpool, winning the Champions' League this season is like learning how to fly before learning how to walk. It is a sad spectacle that Liverpool for all its past glory in the Paisly and Shankly days have not bagged a single English title since the nineties. You can't conquer Europe without conquering your own country. That is the bottomline.
The final at Istanbul may see Liverpool lift its 5th European crown and find themselves with the elites of European clubs that have won more than 4 times : AC Milan, Real Madrid, Ajax and Bayern Munich. They should return next year as defending champions as they've beaten the likes of Leverkusen, Juventus and Chelsea along the way but finishing below the top 4 in their own country's league does not reflect good things about this football club.
Real Madrid who won the Champions' League but finished 5th in the La Liga had the approval to participate in the following season's competition over 4th place Real Zaragoza for a very good reason. Simply because they were the dominant force of Spain at that era. They were truly considered champions as they've won the league so many times before and after that year they finished 5th. Compared to that of 4th place Zaragoza who is a one-off case.
Surely, you may argue that Everton's 4th place finish may also be a one-off case and Liverpool has been consistenly in the top 4. But Liverpool has never been crowned English champions for almost 15 years and they were never truly the dominant team of the land. That can't be said for the case of Real Madrid who won 2 European Cups and several league titles in the late nineties and the early part of this decade.
To reach a European final is definitely not easy. Luck, form, squad depth, big-match temperament and all comes to play. Liverpool have come so far to try and capture the biggest prize of all courtesy of a 4th place finish last season. To teams like Arsenal, Manchester United and even Chelsea who were all former domestic champions and seasoned Chanpions' League campaigners, this may come as an insult. For Liverpool is merely viewed as a team with luck, sheer grit in knock-out competitions with no real European pedigree.
My money's on Liverpool to nick the prize though.
They are 90min away from Champions' League glory yet a place in next season's competition lies in jeopardy.
For Man Utd fans, winning the European Cup means more than anything else. The Premier league have been won far too many times over the last decade. Too many FA cup finals and too many domestic glory but just one European trophy. I would rather drench myself in European cup glory champagne than win the FA cup or even win the league.
For the case of Liverpool, winning the Champions' League this season is like learning how to fly before learning how to walk. It is a sad spectacle that Liverpool for all its past glory in the Paisly and Shankly days have not bagged a single English title since the nineties. You can't conquer Europe without conquering your own country. That is the bottomline.
The final at Istanbul may see Liverpool lift its 5th European crown and find themselves with the elites of European clubs that have won more than 4 times : AC Milan, Real Madrid, Ajax and Bayern Munich. They should return next year as defending champions as they've beaten the likes of Leverkusen, Juventus and Chelsea along the way but finishing below the top 4 in their own country's league does not reflect good things about this football club.
Real Madrid who won the Champions' League but finished 5th in the La Liga had the approval to participate in the following season's competition over 4th place Real Zaragoza for a very good reason. Simply because they were the dominant force of Spain at that era. They were truly considered champions as they've won the league so many times before and after that year they finished 5th. Compared to that of 4th place Zaragoza who is a one-off case.
Surely, you may argue that Everton's 4th place finish may also be a one-off case and Liverpool has been consistenly in the top 4. But Liverpool has never been crowned English champions for almost 15 years and they were never truly the dominant team of the land. That can't be said for the case of Real Madrid who won 2 European Cups and several league titles in the late nineties and the early part of this decade.
To reach a European final is definitely not easy. Luck, form, squad depth, big-match temperament and all comes to play. Liverpool have come so far to try and capture the biggest prize of all courtesy of a 4th place finish last season. To teams like Arsenal, Manchester United and even Chelsea who were all former domestic champions and seasoned Chanpions' League campaigners, this may come as an insult. For Liverpool is merely viewed as a team with luck, sheer grit in knock-out competitions with no real European pedigree.
My money's on Liverpool to nick the prize though.
posted by jingli K at 11:32 PM
3 Comments:
Though Milan struggled against PSV, i reckon they w still demolish Liverpool anyhow.....
(and yah tis wld make a decent 'new-paper' post)
Azzurri ~~~~~(somehow believing Italians always hav e upper hand)
Liverpool has got a decent squad. However, in comparison with Milan. erm. yah. u get it. but if pool does land the prize, i think that every cup-winning team should at least be given a chance to defend it.
We surely have to give some credit to liverpool, for being able to conjure up such impossible results all the time.
Beating the likes of Chelsea, Juventus en route to the Finals, they have certainly shown their calibre to be England's representative in Europe.
I guess at the end of the day, they are just a screwed up team that magaged to squeeze itself into the finals. Surely some other team, like Arsenal, deserves to get to the final more than pool.
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