Smart money still on Italians
Probably not - they lack the consistency for a start - but after a topsy-turvy week in the Champions League, anything seems possible.
Two English sides into the quarter-finals and none from Spain might seem on paper like some kind of changing of the guard, but Chelsea and Liverpool have still to overcome their toughest tests if Blighty’s woeful contribution to the roll of honour is to be improved. The smart money remains on the Italians.
Down at Stamford Bridge they’ll be thinking differently, and understandably so after that pulsating win over Barcelona. But the euphoria of a wonderful victory obscures some harsher truths, not least of which is that in the period coming up to John Terry’s winning goal, Barca looked to be firmly in control of their destiny.
It’s frankly bizarre to say about any team which finds itself three goals down inside 20 minutes, but Barca presented the greater threat for the bulk of the game. But for a typically inspired performance by Cech, Barcelona could have been out of sight before Terry’s intervention.
Credit Chelsea for their power and purpose, but Barcelona were ultimately undone by defensive frailty - it was no surprise that the decisive goal was the result of a badly defended set-piece. Elsewhere, there were times when even against England’s most upwardly mobile club Barca moved the ball about with a one-touch fluency that seemed to belong to a whole different ball game.
But if Barcelona possessed the imagination, Chelsea had a greater grip on reality. Note, for example, that as time ran out the visitors still seemed reluctant - if not actually incapable - of abandoning their passing game in favour of launching a few into the box. The Blues, by contrast, understand the value of pragmatism.
All that talk about the London galacticos is fine and dandy when you’re showboating against the Premiership’s weaker teams but something else is required in the company of Europe’s elite. Chelsea, thanks in large part to Mourinho, have that x-factor - a never-say-die spirit which runs right through the side and is personified in the inspirational captaincy of Terry. On a night when Spanish verve and flair came unstuck against English directness and determination, it was fitting that Terry should have the last say (even if the goal should have been disallowed).
Never mind the Abramovich billions or Mourinho’s increasingly colourful antics, not to mention the excitement Duff, Robben and Lampard are capable of generating; what makes Chelsea’s success so admirable is that they play with the joy, spirit and determination of a real team. The club may have been transformed but that old hunger for success - bordering on famine - clearly galvanises the new well-to-do generation.
However, I still don’t think those qualities will be enough to take them past the likes of AC Milan. While Bayern Munich effectively shut down Arsenal with a pressure game that would have had Jack Charlton growling his appreciation, Milan were simply immaculate over two legs against Manchester United.
Having looked entirely at home in Old Trafford - where they pretty much restricted United to counter-attacks - they did enough to make the San Siro leg far more of a formality than the slender lead might have suggested. While Ferguson struggles to extract the maximum from an evolving side - in which youth translates as inexperience in the Champions League - Milan appear to have the blend exactly right and look well placed to reverse Hansen’s infamous maxim about Fergie’s one-time fledglings: you can indeed win something with oul’ fellas.
Just as long as they’re apparently bionic OAP’s like Cafu and Maldini.
Meanwhile, those romantics among us who still see merit in the increasingly derided concept of the ‘beautiful game’ can’t find it in ourselves to share Eamon Dunphy’s apparent glee in witnessing what could well be the death throes of the Real Madrid galacticos. Beckham may have been bought for commercial rather than footballing reasons, but, even taking the pitch with no defence to speak of, Madrid could be an unparalleled joy when Zidane, Ronaldo, Raul and Roberto Carlos had their tails up. Juve’s deserved victory probably signals that this is the last season we’ll see them all in the one team.
At least until Jose brings ‘em all to Stamford Bridge, of course. And keeps them on the bench.
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