Football freaks only - Which league is the best?

[Andy]

If spain are the 5th best team in the world and england only the 9th, then why are England joint favourites to win the tournemant? And your UEFA rankings are soo far out of date its unbeleivable, did you not hear about leeds getting relegated going into administration and now being absolutely useless? Anyone who knows anything about football will know about leeds, Champions league semi-finalists and just a few short years later they get relegated to the first division.

 

[meteor]

If spain are the 5th best team in the world and england only the 9th, then why are England joint favourites to win the tournemant? And your UEFA rankings are soo far out of date its unbeleivable, did you not hear about leeds getting relegated going into administration and now being absolutely useless? Anyone who knows anything about football will know about leeds, Champions league semi-finalists and just a few short years later they get relegated to the first division.

England favourites? They have not won the championship in decades...
And they are not my UEFA rankings. This is an official list that takes into consideration the results obtained over the last years by the teams. Leeds was relegated, but the years before to the relegation was performing fairly well, right? So, that's why it has a great amount of points
Ronaldinho has just won the FIFA Player of the year for the second consecutive season. Second is Lampard, that plays in Premier league, for Chelsea. But third is another player of La Liga, Eto'o.
I'm looking forward for the Barcelona vs Chelsea, because they are actually the best teams in Europe,IMHO, so it's like a premature final. Here were I live people speak to no end about the matches. Barcelona has just beaten its historical record of 11 victories in a row (with the victory yesterday against Celta it has 13 accumulated until now)
Possibly we will see another row Mourinho vs Rijkaard, just like last year...

 

[Andy]

Guarenteed to be an arguement, mourinho is far too arrogant and to be honest i would love to see barcelona beat chelsea.

 

[Wishbone]

oooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh you mean soccer...

 

[jimmy p]

Premiership of course, Let Stuart Pearce and Manchester City rule supreme! Actually Brazil are 7/2 favs for the world cup, England are 6/1 second fav.

Arsenal for the champions league!

 

[EL]

So EL.. when you going to eat your hat :-)

I'd just like to point out that in the CL quarter finals we now have:
One english team (Arsenal)
Two spanish teams (Villarreal and Barcelona)
Two point nine italian teams (Juventus, Milan, 0.9*Inter who will just have to defeat Ajax).
Could it be more clear...

 

[Andy]

In all fairness though the referee ruined the chelsea barcelona game by sending del horno off in the first leg, it was a stupid challenge but not a red card. Liverpool outplayed benfica but had one of those days when they couldn't score. And as for Rangers, they where lucky to get through the group stages.

Its only between Barcelona, AC Milan and Juventus for me. They are the strongest teams left in it.

 

[jimmy p]

I think that Arsenal have the ace up their sleeve. Much like Liverpool last year, they were the underdogs, and whilst Arsenal's record in Europe is poor, Thierry Henry is on fire.

 

[-Job-]

Liverpool did not outplay Benfica, they just didn't play (especially in the first leg) and Benfica did what they had to do with two awesome goals.
You don't outplay an opponent and lose 3-0 aggregate, geez.

 

[jcsd]

Difficult to say - the Premier league has more depth, but Barca are the best domestic team in the world at the moment. the truth is the difference between the big three leagues at the moemnt is miniscule, but I'd say right now La Liga has just taken over the mantle of the bets league int he world form the Premiership (which was the best league in the world last season IMHO).

Metoer - hmm are you seriously giving any credence to the FIFA rankings when they rank a relatively minor team such like the USA as fifth in the world! Spain is among the top inetrnational teams - but England right now is better.

 

[meteor]

they rank a relatively minor team such like the USA as fifth in the world! .

True, that's sort of preposterous. A glitch in the points assignment system, I reckon


I wil remind the draw for the quarterfinals

Villarreal-Inter Milan
Barcelona-Benfica Lisbon
Milan-Lyon
Arsenal London-Juventus Turin

 

[Andy]

As fantastic a team as Barcelona are, I am not sure whether they are good enough to beat AC milan or Juventus.

This season though i really don't think La liga has been that good, apart from Barcelona and Real Madrid (who are struggling) they don't have any other top class teams.

 

[jcsd]

True, that's sort of preposterous. A glitch in the points assignment system, I reckon

The rankings really don't mean anything no-one thinks they are accuarte indicators of who is better. England's squad at the moment is defintely stronger than Spain's. I'd put both teams among the top ten in the world, but at the moment England defintely have the upper hand.

I wil remind the draw for the quarterfinals

Villarreal-Inter Milan
Barcelona-Benfica Lisbon
Milan-Lyon
Arsenal London-Juventus Turin

Yes it's not been a great year in Europe for England's top clubs, but I'm not reading too much into it, the Premier League is still very strong, though so is La Liga and Serie A.

 

[jcsd]

As fantastic a team as Barcelona are, I am not sure whether they are good enough to beat AC milan or Juventus.

This season though i really don't think La liga has been that good, apart from Barcelona and Real Madrid (who are struggling) they don't have any other top class teams.

Barca are the best club team in the world at the moment - they may not have the best defence, but their attack is unbelivable I'd expect them to beat both those teams. Villareal aren't too shabby either they have Forlan, Sorin and most importantly Riquelme, but it is true that outside the top few teams La Liga suffers in comparison to the Premiership and Serie A.

 

[jimmy p]

It wasn't a great year for England last year, but look at Liverpool :) I think Arsenal have every chance of winning. If only Dennis Bergkamp would fly.

Barca are a great team, but I personally think that Juventus are the best in the world. Juve's midfield would certainly cause more problems than Milan's.

All these leagues have super-teams, where no-one else is going to get a look in. La Liga has Barca, Real Madrid and Valencia, Serie A has Inter, AC Milan and Juve, even the Bundesliga has Bayern Munich and you could also add Shalke '04. The Premiership has Chelsea, Arsenal, Man Utd and Liverpool and (pre and post Souness) Newcastle. That's what makes the premiership seem better, is because it is more open.

 

[meteor]

I think that Arsenal have the ace up their sleeve. Much like Liverpool last year, they were the underdogs, and whilst Arsenal's record in Europe is poor, Thierry Henry is on fire.

The word in the street is that Arsenal superstar T. Henry has signed for Barca to play here the next season

 

[jimmy p]

Hmm, we all thought it hinged on how well Arsenal did in the Champions League determined where Henry would be. I think he would be wasted in any other league other than the premiership. He is quite unremarkable for the French national team, and they play European football.

 

[siddharth]

I think he would be wasted in any other league other than the premiership.

I disagree. I think his talent is being wasted at Arsenal. Imagine if he could play alongside the likes of Ronaldinho at Barca.

 

[meteor]

Arsenal London suffered to beat the modest Villarreal, but now it has reached the final (first time in its history)

So congrats to my briton friends, though they have foiled the possibility of an all-spanish final

I always liked the Champions League Hymn, sohttp://www.wasimmer.de/downloads/champions_league_hymne.mp3 it is. If it sounds like Handel, it's not a coincidence

 

[J77]

For entertainment value - Premier League.

Tho', even with Arsenal in the final and Liverpool's success, I still don't think we've cracked Europe.

Chelsea look unstoppable in the PL but average playing the other European teams.

PL is fast-paced and exciting, but I'm having my doubts over the quality these days.

Still, bring on the summer and we'll see how the likes of Lampard and Gerrard stand up against Ronaldhinio

LMAO @ Arsenal London

 

[The P-manator]

What about the French League? I know Lyon ogt out by Milan but still, they're an insane team. But if I were to go with the options up there, is La Liga the Spanish Premiera Division or the German Bundesliga?

 

[J77]

La Liga's Spanish.

And, imo, Barca are the best club team in the world - we'll see what happens in the CL final

Of course, they have the Galacticos of Real Madrid - who are looking like the cast from Cocoon - and Valencia, Deportivo, Villareal...

It's a very decent league.

Bundesliga has no decent teams at the moment.

 

[Reshma]

UEFA champions league hasn't been listed on the poll? That's one of my favourite leagues. But nothing is better than the World Cup!
Well there seems to be a lot of confusion here over "Football" . Football(as called across Europe) is known as Soccer in US. But the official name given to football by FIFA is Association Football. (I like to call it "Footsie" though ).
45 days left for the world cup!

 

[siddharth]

Who's watching the champions league finals right now?

Cracking game, though I can't watch it . Lehmann just got sent off. Barca should be leading if not for the ref.

Goal! I knew this would happen. Arsenal score with 10 men. Let's see if they can hang on for the rest of the game.

 

[meteor]

Who's watching the champions league finals right now?

Cracking game, though I can't watch it . Lehmann just got sent off. Barca should be leading if not for the ref.

Goal! I knew this would happen. Arsenal score with 10 men. Let's see if they can hang on for the rest of the game.

Yea, I'm watching it. I have to say that the referee is a rifler, and he has denied a legal goal to Giuly. This decision will raise hackles in the Ciutat Comtal should the match end with this scoreline. Right now, at half time, Arsenal 1-Barca 0

 

[meteor]

GOOOAAALLLL!

Eto'o scored.

​

Barca 1-Arsenal 1

 

[siddharth]

Yaay!

Come on barca, one more to win. I think ronnie is going to get the winner. He looks dangerous.

 

[meteor]

GOOAALLL!

Woa, Belletti scored. Barca 2-Arsenal 1. I'm crawling on the floor

 

[siddharth]

This is great stuff . It was the substitute Larsson both the times with the assist.

Yes! Barcelona have won. So, the winner of both the Champions League and the UEFA cup were teams from La Liga.

 

[ukmicky]

The champions league is a knockout competion and so can not be used to judge who's best. if it were the case then chelsea would have been in the finals as they are at present a much better team than arsenal and have proved so over the course of the pl season.

There are only two good leagues the Premeirship and the La liga but the premiership would probably come out top if a proper competion was put to gether to judge which one was best.


Well done barca, From a chelsea fan.

 

[Reshma]

Congrats to Barcalona! Got tensed when they did not score in the first half, now they have won! Way to go!

 

[Andy]

Was a good game but the referee spoiled it. Henry got kicked all over the place by puyol and marques but neither received any for of punishment (yelow card) yet henry makes a perfect tackle and gets booked what's that all about?

Well done to Barcelona they are a great team and would probably have won if it was 11 against 11 anyway but i wouldn't have been surprised if it was a high scoring game with arsenal just edging it.

 

[siddharth]

Was a good game but the referee spoiled it. Henry got kicked all over the place by puyol and marques but neither received any for of punishment (yelow card) yet henry makes a perfect tackle and gets booked what's that all about?

What about Eboue's dive, from which Arsenal scored? He should have been sent off for that, if not for the first bad tackle.

 

[Andy]

Yea i agree, eboue did dive and he should have been booked according to the laws of the game. But so should all of the barcelona players that where gesturing to the referee that lehman should be sent off. And there was a lot more play acting by the barcelona players throughout the entire game than by the arsenal players.

 

[arildno]

Is this an interesting thread?