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Football News: Will La Liga Hold On To The Champions League Trophy

Following last season's Champions League trophy going to a La Liga side, after Barcelona beat Juventus, and the previous season being contested by two La Liga sides in Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid, it does seem that Spanish football is currently in the ascendancy. With three potential winners and one of the dark horses, when their fourth entry, Sevilla, is taken into account, the odds favour Spain being the home of this season's Champions League winner. Following Tuesday night's games, you might well have been forgiven for conceding the Champions League to one of Spain's five entries, as both Real Madrid and Sevilla romped to victory.

Wednesday night is a completely different story. as the results were mixed, one win, one draw and one loss in the three matches involving Spanish sides. While Atletico Madrid picked up a win, Barca were held to a draw and Valencia slumped to defeat. Despite the blips last night, it is difficult to look past Madrid and Barcelona for a winner.

 

Sevilla and Valencia are on the outside and really have little chance of winning the trophy, but even they are capable of beating anyone on their day. The main rivals for the title come from Serie A and the Bundesliga, namely Juventus and Bayern Munich. While Juve have lost Arturo Vidal to Bayern, and not got off to a good start to the season, their hard fought victory over Manchester City has shown they are still capable of a challenge this season.

With this being almost certainly Pep Guardiola's last season with Bayern Munchen, they will be among the favourites, as the Champions League is the prize he mosts want, but it does feel like he is destined to fail again. This season just has the feel of yet another Real Madrid trophy. Though it must be said the additions made in the summer have strengthened Bayern and made them seem a lot more of a threat than in previous years.

 

Arturo Vidal is, despite the Copa America escapade, an excellent acquisition, his power and running allied to his technical excellence have added an entire new dimension to the Munich attack. The pace and trickery of Douglas Costa, regardless of the moans about him disrespecting opponents, has created new problems for an attack that was beginning to look stale. They look to be the only real challengers to the might of La Liga.

The English Premier League clubs look light years away from competing, with a real lack of quality in their teams, despite the huge amounts of money available for them to spend. That only really leaves Serie A, who also seem to be suffering from a lack of quality, with Juve losing Vidal in the summer, even they look much weaker this season.

Written by Tris Burke September 17 2015 14:15:26