Europe no safe haven for the Premier League elite

Zlatan! Ronaldo! Messi!

You can’t blame RTÉ Sport for firing off the big guns to salute the return of the Champions League.

“It’s back!” the station’s trailer all but shrieks though, given how the old European Cup has long-sinced metamorphosed into something much closer to a protracted, near season-long affair, “It’s hardly been away!” might be, if not quite so dramatic, then a good deal closer to the mark.