At the beginning of this current 2018/2019 season, I gathered round a group of soccer lovers that know and respect me for my soccer analysing skills and told them point clear that the recruitment of Unai Emery by Arsenal, Maurizio Sarri by Chelsea, presence of Master gegenpresser in Jurgen Klopp, Mr. Tiki-Taka in Pep Guardiola and silent killer of a tactician in Pochettino would spell great competition and a hell of an English Premier League season. What I failed to consider out of my biased and sentimental analysis was the performances of these teams in European competitions.

As a fan of Real Madrid, considered and regarded as the most successful club in football history based in Spain just in case you do not know. They are tagged with such honour mostly because of their European triumphs and being the team with the most European trophies in club football. Prior to this season, Real Madrid have lifted the Uefa Champions League four times in the past five years and the season they missed out on it, they were eliminated in the semi-final. They achieved such glorious feat with a team envied by every club in the world. The coaches, Ancelotti who won them their 10th Uefa Champions league trophy in 2014 and missed out the following season on semis and former club superstar Zinedine Zidane who won them three consecutive Uefa Champions League titles. Both coaches won these trophies with one major superstar forwarding their attack and that player is Cristiano Ronaldo.

Zidane and Ronaldo would depart before this season began yet I clung onto the belief and hope that Real Madrid might make it four successive Champions League title even without Zidane and Ronaldo, “UNSHAKEABLE LOVE” isn’t?? Well, as funny as it sounds, Real Madrid were knocked out of the European competition by a group of young boys with a little mixture of old legs in Ajax and from then on, I had to channel my vision and thoughts to other teams and that brings us back to my topic for this piece.

The four teams from England participating in the Uefa Champions League were Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool and Tottenham while the Uefa Europa League witnessed the presence of Arsenal and Chelsea.

The Uefa Champions League being the more popular of both Uefa competitions was given more attention by me. As Real Madrid were being knocked out in the round of 16, Manchester United rode their luck past French giants Paris Saint Germain, Manchester City strolled past Schalke 04 of Germany, Tottenham survived a scare and rolled past Borussia Dortmund while Liverpool struggled past Bayern Munich.

The quarter final pitied two English teams together in Manchester City and Tottenham, Manchester United took on giants of Spain in F.C Barcelona and Liverpool was paired with Portgual’s FC Porto.

While Barcelona made light work of Manchester United’s defence and sent them parking from the competition in the second leg after the reds had fought them toe-to-toe in the first, Liverpool stood firm to see off FC Porto while Manchester City and Tottenham were engaged in one of the most frantic and exhilarating encounters in the history of the competition which finally saw the Tots go through with away goals. It left just two English teams in the competition and heading into the semi final.

With the humiliation by Ajax of Real Madrid still very well engraved in my thoughts and their resilience and determination that enabled them see off a Cristiano-inspired Juventus as well, would it be wrong for me to have crowned Ajax finalists even before they played Tottenham in the semis or was that my sentimental judgement at play again?

Well, Ajax allowed their immaturity in judgment get the better of them and they threw away a two goal lead in the 2nd leg to allow Tottenham win and go through on away goals.

A day before Amsterdam was lit by the men from England, Barcelona replicated the same performance that saw them eliminated by Roma in this same competition last year as they also threw away a 3-0 1st leg lead to allow Liverpool smash 4 past them in the second and go through. AN ENGLISH UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL IT IS FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 2008.

Elsewhere in Europe, Arsenal and Chelsea held off Valencia and Eintracht Frankfurt respectively in the semi final to create an all English Uefa Europa League final.

Back to England, the anticipated war is sure going down there but not just as fully anticipated. The battle for the crown is only fought by Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool and Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City while Unai Emery’s Arsenal, Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea and Pochettino’s Tottenham are battling it out for the remaining two Uefa Champions League spots while the remaining team would have to settle for a place in the Uefa Europa League.

However, I don’t know how clear this reasoning is but I would be putting it out as a question.

“If winning any of the European titles would spell automatic qualification to the Uefa Champions League next season, would that mean we would be seeing more than 5 English teams in the Uefa Champions League next season?