UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE : WHICH IS THE BEST LEAGUE IN EUROPE

For the very first time in the history of the champions league,4 teams from the same league (England) made have made it inot the quarter finals.Though this is not surprising since for the last 3 seasons we have always had at least 1 semi-finalist from England,last season witnessed the appearance of 3 semi finalist from England,something that will most likely repeat itself again should all the English Teams measure of to the standard expected of them in the quarter finals in April.

Even Spain and Italy at their best could only produce 3 quarterfinalist in between them,the question that comes to mind then is : WHICH IS THE BEST LEAGUE IN EUROPE? Or is it just a fluke ? Or is that the top four teams in England beginning to wake up ? Or is this the beginning of another dominance of England by English clubs,as was the case when Liverpool,Aston Villa and Nottingham forext won Seven European Cups In just eight seasons.

I just can not wait to see the games and most of the Excitement in the last 8 also involves English teams facing each other.The Gunners' Luck could only place them against veterans-Liverpool

Of the English quartet Chelsea will be the most happy, having drawn Fenerbahce, who on paper perhaps seem the weakest side left. However, Rick Parry of Liverpool revealed his relief at the fact that "at least we don’t have to go to Turkey." Whether this was a reference to the distances to travel or a fear of the Turkish dark horses was unclear.

It was also acknowledged by Parry that drawing an English side was bad luck, with the intriguing situation that the English four are looking some of the most competitive and strongest teams at the moment.

For the ever noisy English media the qualification of 4 Of their teams into the last 8 marks the beginning of an ear. Alex Ferguson, speaking before the draw, proclaimed that ‘the English league is the strongest in Europe’.

Even more telling than a Scot extolling the virtues of the English league was Kaka’s statement: "You can say that the Premier League is not only the best for this season but for what its teams have done over the last few years’." Soon after the draw in Nyon, a visibly relieved Txiki Begiristain, Barcelona's director of sport, also hailed the Premier League as "undoubtedly the strongest league in Europe."

You can blame the Englishmen once in a while for getting carried away, but when praise begins to come from those in the continent - there is most certainly some fire beneath all the smoke.

The fact of the matter is that seven quarter-finalists in two seasons and most possibly six out of eight semi-finalists over the same period is a feat not worth ignoring, even if Serie A and La Liga loyalists may attempt to shoot it down.

Manchester United who has been placed against Roma in a repeat of the quarter finals of last season will sure not be Happy to have Roma again,I am quick to warn the fans of the red devils not to expect a 7-1 win this time around.That said, the feisty reception the Red Devils' fans received in Rome last time round will worry some.

If they are to beat the Italian side they will have to play either Schalke or, more likely, Barcelona, a prospect that will have the mouths of fans the world over watering.

Meanwhile the winners of the all-English tie face either Chelsea or Fenerbahce. Chelsea and Liverpool have a habit of drawing each other in the knock out phases of cups. The Blues have, interestingly enough, often come off worse - unlike in the Premirship - and would be eager to seek revenge.

That said, I honestly think Arsenal has a better chance to progress than Liverpool ( forget the poor performance in the League ) though Liverpool seems to know how to play the ball when it comes to playing it in Europe so also their manager who has not been impressive in the local league but has a big chance in Europe.

This clash promises to be very interesting and full of goal and intrigues ,it is a tripple-header too, : too: the teams also meet in the league in the same week, so the sides will have plenty of opportunities to ‘get to know each other’.

This could be seen as the year the Premier League came of age, announcing itself to the rest of Europe as truly the strongest league on the planet. An all-English final would be the culmination of a true renaissance for the game in its country of origin.

Amid all the criticism directed at this country's football - some justified, some not quite - some of the great positives get forgotten, or deliberately ignored. Surely some credit is due.

I honestly think the dominance of the English League is real,and I look forward to a all English final in Moscow last in the year.I don't want to raise the dust here though but I stronghly believe in a Manchester united - Arsenal final,quote me anywhere

Cesc: To Beat Kaka Would Be Fab

Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas spoke about the Milan game, and what it would mean to him if they were to beat Milan. He also stated that he wants to spend the rest of his career at the North London club.

Very Happy Here

Speaking in an exclusive interview with CNN, the Spanish international revealed that he has not yet entered discussions about extending his contract beyond its current expiry date but will only leave if he is no longer wanted at the club.

"I am very happy, everything is going well, I have got friends in the club," said the 20-year-old .
"I like the life and I am comfortable with the fans. If they don't want me here, then of course I would like to go back to Spain.

"But if the club wants me and the boss thinks I still can give a lot to the club, then I will stay here. I will be here for as long as they want me."

Wenger Ties Me To Arsenal

Fabregas, who was snatched from Barcelona's youth program in 2003, also said that manager Arsene Wenger was one of the main reasons for him wanting to stay.

"He has an eye to catch young players that he wants in the future, and that is something special," said Fabregas. "I have always been grateful for what he has done for me, what he has done for the club and I feel very lucky to be working under him."

Football Faster Than In Spain

In addition to this, he also highlighted the atmospheres of Premier League stadiums and the fast, attacking nature of the football as crucial factors in his love of the English game.

"Whenever you watch a football game here you can see the passion," he said.
"Even if the two lowest teams in the league are playing you can feel the passion. They always try to go forward, even if the game maybe technically is not the best you can feel they go to win.
"In Spain everything is slower and sometimes it takes 20 minutes to see something happen. But of course technically the Spanish league is very, very good."

Title Challenge

As for the Premier League title, Fabregas sounded a note of caution.
"We have to try to play nice football - not beautiful football, but football that really enables us to win. The fans believe in us and we are quite confident we can do it, but there is still a long way to go."

Beating Kaka And Pirlo Would Be Special

Inevitably, also spoke about this week's Champions League clash against holders AC Milan.
"We are all looking forward to it because it will be a very difficult game," he admitted.
"Everybody says they are not doing well in the league, but this kind of team can kill you in one second. They have massive players like Kaka and Andrea Pirlo - we have to be careful, but I still think we have a good chance."

"To beat a team that contains Kaka and Pirlo would be special for me," he continued.
"They are two of the best players in the world. We must pay close attention to them as they can hurt us. It’s important to cancel them out. If we do this, Milan will have problems.”

Kaka Looks Foward To "Beautiful" Game Against Arsenal

The contest pits the Milanese old guard against Arsene Wenger’s young guns. Kaka, whose real name is Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite, recognises that Arsenal will offer a stern test of Milan’s credentials. Nevertheless, he backs the Rossoneri to dump the English side out of the competition and add to the club’s seven European triumphs.

"People have called this tie against Arsenal a match between an ageing team and a new young, up-and-coming side,” the reigning Fifa world player of the year said. “It is a fair comparison, because the average age in the first team here in Milan is 32, but that doesn't mean we'll struggle against them. Experience counts for everything at this stage of the Champions League.”

“This is a game we can enjoy. It can be beautiful.”

Despite Milan’s determination to succeed, Kaka does not underestimate the threat posed by Wenger’s team. Arsenal enjoy a five point lead in the Premiership over closest rivals Manchester United. However, the Gunners crashed out of the English FA Cup 4 –0 last Saturday against United. Many observers believe the Gunners boss decision not to play his strongest team showed that he had given priority to the match against the 2007 Champions League winners.

"This tie against Arsenal will be open and more interesting than if Milan had been drawn against Liverpool or Chelsea, teams that play more in the traditional English style," Kaka conceded. “They play football the way we like it to see it in Brazil, with style, changing position all the time, moving the ball among themselves so quickly.

“They have won Premier League titles, they were in the Champions League final a few years ago and they have real quality."

Wednesday’s Champions League match is seen as crucial to the Milan team which has not hit its best form this season and lies 21 points behind city rivals Internazionale in Serie A. Kaka sees the Champions League game as a chance for Milan to ignite their season.

"We were inconsistent in the first half of the season," said Kaka. "But we have recovered since the turn of the year and have lost only once in Italy since then, even if the top is still a long way off.

“That means the Champions League is the most important competition we're in - win that and your names are etched down in history, far more so than if you win the domestic league. We are too far behind in Serie A, so the priority is completely to win the Champions League again."

Who Is Better - Kaka or Ronaldo?

Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro and Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite are named, respectively, after actor-turned-President Ronald Reagan, and the baby babble of a younger brother who couldn't pronounce the word 'Ricardo'. From these beginnings come the two most famous names in world football: Ronaldo and Kaka.

The pair are also the subject of one of the most polemical arguments currently being debated in pubs and bars around the planet. One of the two gets the vote of FIFA, UEFA, Pele, and the majority of Europe’s army of football journalists. The other can count on the support of Sir Alex Ferguson, the late George Best, and his mum. So, who is the better player, Kaka or Ronaldo?

Based on this season’s form, it is difficult to argue against Ronaldo.

In Serie A Kaka has been stumbling a little, looking slightly jaded, not quite managing to pick up the rhythm that has previously marked him out as the most outstanding attacking talent of his generation. By his standards, it’s been a "nearly, but not quite" kind of season so far.

Ronaldo, on the other hand, has been almost supersonic in the Premier League. Swapping his annoying diving antics and some of his unnecessary trickery for a more straight-running, direct approach, the Portuguese midfielder has frightened the living daylights out of just about every defender and goalkeeper in the league.

His blistering pace, remarkable athleticism, unstoppable free-kicks and clinical eye for goal have seen him overtake his goalscoring tally of last season already and taken him to the top of the netting charts. He has hit 27 goals in as many games for Man United - not bad for a player who’s supposed to play in midfield. His willingness to attack is relentless.

But when comparing these two stellar talents, it is important to remember the old adage: ’form is temporary and class is permanent.’

Michel Platini, who spoke about Ronaldo this week, is correct in saying that the Portuguese has yet to prove himself on the biggest of stages.

"It's difficult to compare players in competitions and teams. Is it more difficult to play right wing in Manchester than it is in Italy, where it doesn't exist?” Platini argued this week.

What the UEFA president is saying is that, for all it’s thrills and spills, the Premier League is not as defensively sophisticated as the equivalent competitions in Spain and Italy.

"If Ronaldo is the best player in the world or Europe he will have to prove it in the Euros, because that will be the only way we can judge him, when all the best players will have had the chance to be recognised," declared Platini.

In the Champions League last season, when it mattered most, Ronaldo went missing. While Kaka was busy winning the competition and becoming its top scorer, Ronaldo turned in a few cameo performances and scored a couple of goals. In his side’s vital away leg against Milan in the San Siro, he first made a fool of himself, then appeared to have gone home for the rest of the evening.

But lets not dwell too long on Ronaldo’s flaws. He is, after all, still only 22. No-one is suggesting that he won't go on to become a great player.

This, in turn, should not distract from the fact that Kaka is, quite simply, a more complete footballer than Ronaldo.

His balance is better, his technique is easier, he is much more elegant in possession, a far better team player, a more incisive passer and a more intelligent reader of the game. The Brazilian has never attempted a step-over in his life because he doesn’t have to. Such circus trickery is beneath him.

Kaka glides past players as if they aren‘t there; he's as subtle as he is lighting quick. And when Kaka sings, Ronaldo often stutters. The latter's jittery, jinking, dribbling is easier to deal with as a defender. Not easy, by any means, but easier.

To put it another way, marking Ronaldo is about as difficult as dodging bullets. Marking Kaka is like marking the breeze.

The Portuguese, however, is better in the air and probably a better free-kick taker. Probably? We haven't really had an opportunity to see how good Kaka is at set pieces because Pirlo, the best in the world, takes them for Milan and Ronaldinho usually takes them for Brazil. As for Ronaldo's higher ratio of goals per game, as Platini intimated, he is doing it in a league where it is easier to score goals. As for his 20 strikes in 53 games at international level, almost all of them have come against teams such as Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Estonia.

Pele, who is usually a terrible judge of talent, to be quite honest, has actually got it right this time.

“Kaka is the best player in the world, without a doubt,” the Brazilian legend told Gazzetta Dello Sport recently.

Most of the talk of Ronaldo being the best player in the world has come from England, where there is a tendency to claim global supremacy too easily and too quickly.

Take Ronaldo’s stunning free-kick against Portsmouth. As soon as his strike hit the top right hand corner of the net, pundits and fans were proclaiming it as the greatest free-kick of all time. It wasn’t. Its not even the best free-kick of the season. Andrea Pirlo’s pearler in the Milan derby was much closer to the edge of the box and more difficult to lift up over the wall and down again into the top corner.

Okay, all these claims about one player being better than another are probably unproductive, anyway. Football is, lest we forget, a team game. Are Kaka and Ronaldo really better players than the likes of Sergio Ramos, Gianluigi Buffon, Francesco Totti, Esteban Cambiasso, Andrea Pirlo, Fernando Torres, Cesc Fabregas or Zlatan Ibrahimovic? It is, of course, virtually impossible to compare players who perform completely different roles and functions on the pitch.

The best we can conclude in the debate about Kaka and Ronaldo is that Kaka is the finished article and Ronaldo still has a little way to go. But then again, if he is a finished praduct, should he not be producing the results in Serie A? And the debate goes on...

One thing is certain: it is a privilege to watch both of them play.