England started the week with a unique four Champions League contenders out of a star-studded 16 survivors from the group stage.
Okay, they didn’t have half a chance of lifting the European Cup once dominated by Liverpool, Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest, but they had a quarter of a chance on paper.
Yet the premiership league, which so often proclaims itself the best in the world, ended with the best three of that high-quality quartet in some trouble after the first-leg games.
Chelsea can rightly point to a refereeing blunder when it comes to their 2-1 defeat at Barcelona’s Nou Camp.
But are they right to point the finger quite so firmly at blond bombshell Anders Frisk? The referee might seem too concerned about his looks and flowing locks but Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho seems to feel there are darker forces at work behind the hair dye.
Chelsea were ahead after an own goal until Didier Drogba was seen to go in studs-up on the goalkeeper, earning his second yellow card in the second half. But slow motion replays reveal his challenge was far from malicious, that his attempt to win the ball had been genuine — and his foot was not raised when he made contact.
Significantly, Drogba stayed on to shake hands all round before taking the long walk. He knew he’d been hard done by. And so did Chelsea. Barca, having levelled, then ensured they had a lead to take to Stamford Bridge in a fortnight when Samuel Eto’o, the superb Cameroon striker, burst between two defenders to latch on to a miscued shot and score past the excellent Petr Cech.
At first glance it looked like poor defending as Eto’o, who might have left Real Mallorca for the Premiership if Barcelona had not stepped in, found his way through a Blues defence that hasn’t conceded in nine Premiership games.
In truth, though, the timing of his run left the Chelsea defenders with stark options — leave him to break between them or take him down without the ball for a penalty and a red card.
And there’s little doubt that would have happened. Especially the way Frisk was seeing things. After the match Mourinho did what we now expect of him — stirred up a little controversy. He alleged that Frisk had been in the Barcelona dressing room at half time and that something dodgy had gone on during the interval. On Thursday morning there were suggestions of an official complaint to European governing body Uefa.
Great headlines all this, and a neat way of avoiding questions about Chelsea’s unexpected slump, which has seen the most expensive side in the world beaten twice in a week.
Mourinho made similar allegations against Sir Alex Ferguson a month ago, accusing the Manchester United manager of talking to referee Mike Riley during the half-time break in a League Cup semifinal.
Barcelona boss Frank Rijkaard raged against Mourinho’s allegations. He said: ”I had heard about what Mourinho is saying and it sounds so ridiculous. The referee coming in to our dressing room at half-time? It’s absolutely not true.”
Ultimately, Chelsea can be pleased to come away with the narrowest of defeats. A 1-0 home win will put them through on away goals. Barca looked great in the second half, but I can see them failing to negotiate the Bridge.
Manchester United, 1-0 losers to AC Milan, now need something better than a 1-0 away win at the San Siro to progress. Even with Ruud van Nistelrooy back, that’s a tall order. And Milan, who had Andrij Shevchenko ruled out with a fractured eye socket over the weekend, must be favourites to reach the quarterfinals.
Arsenal, desperately disappointing for the umpteenth time in Europe, go to Highbury trailing Bayern Munich 3-1 — and they were lucky to get that close on Tuesday.
The unexpected success story of the week came at Anfield, where Liverpool crushed Bayer Leverkusen with superb goals from Luis Garcia, John Arne Riise and Dietmar Hamann.
But, at the exact moment Kolo Touré was giving Arsenal an undeserved away goal in Munich, Liverpool’s Polish goalkeeper, Jerzy Dudek, failed to hold a routine shot and offered Leverkusen a similar lifeline.
So the much-vaunted Premiership has had a difficult week. Many consider Spain’s La Liga and Italy’s Serie A to be for wimps, while Germany’s Bundesliga and Holland’s Eredivisie have long been condemned as second-rate because of a basic lack of cash.
But I’m not so sure the Premiership is as good as we think. It is fast, entertaining, popular and unquestionably more rugged than its European cousins, but I wonder sometimes if it isn’t simply too frantic, too committed, for its own good.
Players like Roy Keane, Patrick Vieira and Robbie Savage thrive in the intimidating atmosphere of a Premiership cauldron, but in Europe England’s clubs look unrefined, like ruffians who turn up at the Charles and Camilla wedding.
Ironically French hopefuls Lyon came out of the week looking the best of the rest. The French Prémière has long been the bargain basement of European football. France went into the 2002 World Cup with every starting player registered outside his own domestic league — and Senegal, who ironically beat then-holders France in their opening game, had 12 French-based players. Lyon may be about to end the tradition of French players being forced to travel across borders for continental success.
But I suspect Real Madrid and Barcelona will reinforce what we knew all along: Spain’s La Liga leads the way on quality and cash.