You said

“your midfield argument is certainly a valid one Frankie, but looking at the second half of Roma-Man Utd, you can’t really say that the Giallorossi’s midfield wasn’t functioning. Roma created their share chances, they just couldn’t capitalize on them.”

It’s true that Roma failed to make their chances count – but the United midfield also played a significant role. Perhaps this is a case of the eyes seeing what it wants – but as far as I could remember, yes, Roma created their fair share, but it was in the first half of the second half – their dominance ended once Ferguson sent on Hargreaves for Anderson to steady the ship. And Carrick and Scholes grew in stature as the game progressed from looking a little shaky to spraying confident passes around and relieving the pressure on the defense whenever they could.

Because of the money and the purchasing power, and of course, the atmosphere of England being the “home” of the game, it becomes a very attractive prospect to play in the league afar from the European continent. It’s becoming a league for only the best talent to go to. The players who go to the Premier League are players DEVELOPED by the foreign leagues and then BLOSSOM in the Premier League.

Sporting Lisbon gave Ronaldo and Nani to Man Utd. Bayern Munich gave Ballack to Chelsea, Hargreaves to Man Utd and Santa Cruz to Blackburn. Brazilian and Argentine leagues will soon give out more of their players to the Premier League. If you observe, only the Italian and Spanish giants rule out transfers from their big clubs to the Prem… But will it stand for long? I don’t think so. If you observe, the Premier League has absorbed the style of Italian defenses, German aggressiveness, Spanish midfield patience and South American flair. Some minor anomalies to a seemingly EPL trend is why the English national team does not compare to the continental teams.. but that’s a different story.

The brightest talents in foreign leagues…like Samir Nasri, Mario Gomez, Klaas Jan Huntelaar and many more are linked to UEFA giants in the continent, but who is to say that the lure of the Big 4 in England won’t pass by the minds of these players? Because a transfer like that of Ribery and Toni to Bayern is a RARE occurence.

Don’t you think Ronaldinho’s becoming bored in Barca or Kaka’s just too gracious to Milan? Big-name players are tested in the Premier League: they become bigger stars or big flops… look at Shevchenko…

In Turkey, you either love or hate Fenerbache. Why? Because of the influx of foreign players, traditionalists (and rival fans) say that Fener is Brazilian and not Turkish enough. (Just saw a poll on a Turkish news site, and 69 percent say that the Yellow Canaries will go through to the semifinals.)

As it stands though, I think you need some foreign talent to raise the level of the league, and that the owners outside of the big three will start to notice that and bring in more foreign players.

It’s not so much ‘defence’ but tactical maturity that, coupled with better resources (which Italian club would have been able to attract Torres, who arguably went to the 4th best club in the Premier League?) has lead to the recent rise in domination of the CL from the EPL top 4.

You can see the tactical improvement most markedly in Arsenal and United (who, after some time of underperforming in Europe, have improved massively in recent seasons), while it’s fair to say that Rafa and Mourinho led the current wave and it certainly wasn’t just old-fashioned defending, it was adherence to tactics and splashing money to bring in the right players.

You were basing your argument on money, to which I replied that while it’s certainly a factor, unlimited financial resources don’t necessarily provide a guaranteed way to success (citing case-in-point Abramovich-funded Chelsea, to which European supremacy still cruelly eludes). Another example I cited was Liverpool, which have managed to reach the Champions League final twice and win it once, despite not necessarily having a roster full of superstars (at least not to the extent of compulsive star-buyers Real Madrid or Chelsea).

Well, I have to admit Stefano Cantalupi put it in a whole new perspective for me… defence might indeed be the key. Your midfield argument is certainly a valid one Frankie, but looking at the second half of Roma-Man Utd, you can’t really say that the Giallorossi’s midfield wasn’t functioning. Roma created their share chances, they just couldn’t capitalize on them. No hair-pulling stuff I’ll admit, but still. And they were playing without their “motor” Francesco Totti, at that.

Matthew, kudos goes to Fenerbahce’s achievements in the competition so far. Perhaps if an Italian club had drawn Chelsea in the playoffs, they might have scored a few goals… who knows?

The statistics in the Serie A - EPL match-ups in the knock-out stages, really throw the EPL’s defensive security into sharp focus. Milan, Inter and Roma in 5 matches failed to score a single goal against Arsenal, Liverpool and Man Utd collectively, that is, no goals in 8 hours of football! A pretty extraordinary statistic. I cannot recall anything like that happening before between teams from these two leading football leagues.

But, unlike Stefano, I think there is another reason for the EPL’s impressive defensive record: the strength of the midfields. Liverpool play with two holding players in midfield supplanted by wide men with defensive duties. Mascherano is world class in front of the back door. I’ve always thought that its the unsung Makelele who makes Terry look as good as he appears to be.

Look at the United formation against Roma. 3 midfielders essentially shielding the back four; Rooney and Park also asked to do serious defensive work. This was as defensive and as careful a United set-up as I can remember.

Throw your mind back to last summer. SAF and Carlos Queiroz would have analysed where the team were lacking when playing the best opposition. Where did United recruit? Not an out and out striker, not a defender, but primarily in midfield: Hargreaves, Anderson, Nani. And even the deep lying forward bought, was Tevez, a forward with a real appetite for defensive work.

So if “the attack sells tickets, and the defence wins games”, its the midfield which makes sure the other side don’t play. In truth, Milan, Inter and Roma created very few clear cut opportunities in the 5 knock-out games.

No disputing that the EPL defences have done well, but the true reason for the success of the EPL teams against their Serie A counterparts may lie more with the iron midfield cordons protecting the back four. Set pieces aside, you don’t score if you can’t create.