Meanwhile Liverpool, while not necessarily having a star-laden roster (they have quality no doubt, but are not compulsive star-buyers like Real or Chelsea) have managed to reach the Champions League final twice, winning it once.

I think the real reason of this ‘alternating domination’ by Europe’s top 3 leagues, is just nature’s way of balancing things. There’s a time for everyone.

As for your point on Barcelona, while that’s certainly in the realm of possibilities, I really don’t see them taking the trophy home this year. ‘Inconsistent’ doesn’t even come close to describing their form in the Spanish Liga, and while Europe’s a whole different ballpark, any manager that decides to leave Ronaldinho on the bench doesn’t deserve a trophy. Just my 2 cents…

I think success in Europe for leagues tend to follow the money. Perhaps, it not coincidental that in the 90s Serie A was the richest, in the early 2000s it was the turn of La Liga, and now I think it is increasingly the EPL with the massive sums flowing into the English. The richer you are, the better the players you can attract. After all, let’s be frank, players are not coming from all over the world to England to admire the weather.

Perhaps, it’s not insignificant that players not wanted by the likes of United (Van Nistelrooy) or Arsenal (Thierry Henry) find their way to the top sides in Spain, and even youngsters like Rossi who are surplus to requirements at Old Trafford can play a starring role in helping Villareal to second place in La Liga.

Having said all that, Barcelona (like Milan last year) could still come through a congested EPL field, stuff them and walk off with the trophy. Somehow, on the current form of the teams, I don’t see Barcelona doing it. But you never know, particularly if they drop out of the race for the La Liga title and can rest players (like Milan last year) before the big semi-final clashes. Barcelona will have at least 3 great games left in them this season.

Frankie, you seem to forget that last season AC Milan successively beat Manchester United AND Liverpool, to win the European trophy. So yes, this season English teams are performing better, but I wouldn’t put too much weight on it for seasons to come. In case you haven’t noticed, European supremacy tends to rotate among the top 3 European leagues: the mid to late 90’s were dominated by Serie A teams, the early 2000’s by La Liga teams, now it’s the Premier League’s turn.

On a sidenote, if you want to know what I think about this season, the team I am most disappointed with is Inter Milan. Quite honestly, if the Nerazzurri had maintained the level of play they were exhibiting in the months of October/November, I really don’t see what would have stopped them from reaching European supremacy (in addition to Serie A that is). They were simply a giant bulldozing goalscoring machine, Zlatan Ibrahimovic was arguably playing even better than Cristiano Ronaldo at the time.

Now… well, we all now how well Inter are playing now… such a bloody shame.

I think Roma are out. United will score at least once at Old Trafford; to win Roma will have to score 3 times. Now that would be some dream at Old Trafford which incidentally is known as “the Theatre of Dreams”. But wake up guys, and smell the coffee. It isn’t going to happen.

Three times 3 great Italian club sides have met with 3 of the best the English Premier League have to offer. The result? AC Milan are knocked out by Arsenal; Inter Milan are knocked out by Liverpool and Roma are well on the way to being knocked out by Man Utd.

What is worse, is that each of the Italian sides were well-beaten on their own pitch, and in the 5 games played between the English and Italian sides to date, none of the Italian sides have been able to register a single goal against the English teams and have conceded 7 goals. What is going on?

I would be very interested on the Italian perspective on these series of results in this season’s champion’s league.