THE Champions League returns this week and four of the eight quarter-finalists remain on track for a Treble.
That tells you about all you need to know about what the European game has become.
It's the land of the superclubs. The point where we become blase' about domestic success and this becomes the only metric for glory isn't that far away.
Until then, let's enjoy some of the best of what the continent has to offer.
Tuesday brings the Madrid derby and the strange - but far from implausible - possibility of Carlo Ancelotti losing his job despite being second in La Liga and less than a year removed from delivering "La Decima", the club's 10th European Cup. The word from high up at the Bernabeu - that Ancelotti's poosition is safe - is consistent to the point of being classic "protesting too much".
But Real haven't beaten their cross-town rivals in six attempts this season. And now that Luka Modric, James Rodriguez and Sergio Ramos - the trio of absentees who offered some form of alibi during the horrendous early months of 2015 - are all fit again, there are no excuses to be had.
After losing Thibaut Courtois, Diego Costa, Filipe Luis and David Villa in the summer, Atletico reloaded on the fly. There have been hits (Antoine Griezmann, Miguel Moya) along with misses (Mario Mandzukic, Gulherme Siqueira) but the upshot is this even more of a blood-and-guts team than last season. Atletico's defensive intensity wears you down and then they other hit you on the counter through "El Diablo" Griezmann or on set pieces, where they've scored more than any side in Europe.
Tuesday's other clash sees Juventus heavily favoured against Monaco.
Though, as the Monegasques will remind you, Arsenal were heavily favoured against them too. It's been a weird season in the Principality. The stock narrative is that they lost James Rodriguez and Radamel Falcao and have tumbled down to fourth in Ligue 1. That's true, but it's equally true that they suffered a horrendous start: if
the season had begun in mid-September, they'd be one point off the top.
Leonardo Jardim has built a side that's prickly, tough to break down and can sting you with finesse and experience (Dimitar Berbatov) or pace and enthusiasm (Anthony Martial).
For Juventus, it's something of a test to see how grown-up they are.
Despite their domestic dominance, they haven't advanced past the quarterf-inal stage in 12 years. They'll need to do it without Paul Pogba, but this is their best shot yet to prove they still belong among the elite.
ON paper, today's Manchester derby will confirm the expected narrative. United are flying, having won five straight, and - more importantly - are playing well and rationally. City have lost five of the last seven in all competitions. With the game at Old Trafford, this is the match that that will see United punish the noisy neighbours and solidify a spot in the Champions League next season, maybe even a runner-up slot.
That's the popular impression anyway. To what degree it matches reality is another matter. Those five defeats? Two were against Barcelona. So you can discount those. Another two, against Burnley and Crystal Palace, where distinctly against the run of play. In those two games they averaged 71% possession on the road and outshot the opposition 44 to 15. At the very least what this suggests is that City aren't a team in free-fall in terms of performance.
They've hit some bumps and have looked flat but against most opponents they still managed to do enough to win - chance and probability simply went against them in those reverses.
Manuel Pellegrini doesn't necessarily need to do anything different today. He just needs to ensure his crew haven't been infected by the negativity surrounding the club.
JORDAN'S Prince Ali bin Al Hussein - one of the three men running to unseat Sepp Blatter - at the helm of Fifa next May 29, calls it the "culture of fear". It's the unwillingness to challenge the status quo, the natural inertia that pushes an electorate to back the incumbent. Particularly when that incumbent has been around for four terms and has shown he can be vindictive towards those that are disloyal.
"If they vote in a certain way and that candidate doesn't win, there will be repercussions," Prince Ali said in a recent interview. "From what I've heard, that has happened in the past. But now is the time for people to have courage and put the best interest of the game first, whoever the candidate is."
You start to wonder whether maybe that message is getting through. In years past, support for Blatter in South America, Concacaf, Africa and Oceania was pretty much automatic. But a changing of the guard in South America has marginalised long-term Blatter allies and they did not officially endorse a candidate at their congress. Equally, Concacaf - and particularly the Caribbean voting bloc, who were staunch allies in Jack Warner's hey day - announced that they too would not officially back a candidate but instead would leave it to individual member associations to make their own choice. The Confederation of African Football (CAF) held their congress last week and, again, there was no vote among the 54 member nations. CAF President Issa Hayatou limited himself to saying that CAF's Executive Committee will ask members to vote for Blatter. But that's a long way from a resolution, voted on by all, to support him, which is what we've seen in years past.
That leaves Oceania as the only confederation to have come out solidly in support of the current FIFA president. Asia remains split, while the vast majority of Europe will go one with the three challengers (Russia and some in their sphere of influence will likely
stand by Blatter). There's still six weeks of campaigning and persuading to be done, so anything can happen. But the impression is that this battle for the FIFA presidency may not quite be the foregone conclusion many had imagined.
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