THE ENGLISH FLOURISHES

This is again the season where the English will dominate in Europe. It could be again an all English final. Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal are all through. Real Madrid lost in great humiliation, the greatest defeat (4-0, aggregate 5-0) of the competition ever in their history. Sporting Lisbon suffered an even more incredible defeat at the hands or feet of Bayern Munich (7-1, aggregate 12-1).

Well, to me, the only way to succeed in the Champions League format competition is with an extremely solid defence, conceding goals at home will make your life ultra difficult. You need super good defence or you can succeed by containing possession to attack at will to score loads of goals. If your defence is weak, your midfield and offense must be strong. If your offense is weak, your defence must be strong.

Real Madrid have a very weak defence and their midfield is just average. Their attack is toothless. They are slow and some players are very old. They have been out of the competition for the past many years because of too many leakages of goals. If they want to have a chance at their 10th crown, they need to beef up their defence with a good anchor defensive midfielder. If they must keep Raul, get an extremely good and fast striker to partner him. I pity Casillas in the match, left alone to defend the onslaught of the Liverpool offence. Where is the defence?