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Will Return of Champions League and Europa League Bring More Spanish Dominance?
- Updated: September 13, 2016
From Barajas airport, the first stop was the Santiago Bernabeu and then it was on to the Plaza de Cibeles. With tired eyes and legs but jubilant smiles, they journeyed through the streets of the capital just after dawn, thousands waiting for them and their bus that had “CAMPEO11ES” splashed across all sides, the “N” replaced by the number that counted.
This was the one they’d wanted. No one quite identifies with the European Cup like Real Madrid, and their capture of it for a record 11th time was made sweeter by whom they’d claimed it from and against: Barcelona and Atletico Madrid.
The Catalans had owned the title for 357 days before Real took it off them in Milan, where they edged out their local tormentors. It was how they would have wanted it: clinching the continental battle while landing blows in the national one. And yet, there was a significance in that shiny No. 11 on a national level, too.
Real’s Champions League triumph meant Spanish clubs had won the last 11 European and international titles at club level: the Champions League in 2014, 2015 and 2016; the Europa League and the UEFA Super Cup in the same years; the Club World Cup in 2015 and 2016.
Everything, won by the Spanish.
“We’re getting used to caviar,” said Javier Tebas.
The LFP president is never shy in starting with the Primera Division chest thumping. It’s what he does and it’s essentially his mandate, but it’s his league’s clubs that justify it. Beyond those 11 aforementioned titles—and it’s now 12 following Real’s win in the UEFA Super Cup in August—Spanish sides have won five of the last eight Champions League crowns and eight of the last 13 of the Europa variety.
The dominance is startling. When last season’s European semi-finals arrived, Spanish sides had won 45 of their previous 48 knockout ties with any foreign opposition, and when Real Madrid defeated Manchester City across two legs in April, the recent scoreline between Spain and England in continental ties read 17-1.
Can anyone stop them?
UCL 2014
