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Same old, same old champions crowned in European football leagues

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Manchester City’s Fernandinho in action against Liverpool’s Roberto Firmino as Sadio Mane; looks on during a Premier League match earlier this year. Picture: Peter Powell / EPA
Manchester City’s Fernandinho in action against Liverpool’s Roberto Firmino as Sadio Mane; looks on during a Premier League match earlier this year. Picture: Peter Powell / EPA

A year ago, Barcelona, Juventus, Bayern Munich, Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) were crowned champions in their respective domestic leagues.

Fast-forward 12 months and Barcelona, Juventus, Bayern, City and PSG were again crowned champions in their leagues.

But even if the champions were all the same, there were some differences – at least in England and Germany.

Last year, City won the Premier League with plenty of matches to spare – 19 points ahead of city rivals Manchester United. Bayern won the Bundesliga with a gigantic 21 points ahead of Schalke 04.

This time around, both leagues went down to the wire, with the championship being decided on the very last match day of the season.

The Citizens finished top of their table by a single point ahead of Liverpool, while Bayern were two points ahead of closest rivals Borussia Dortmund.

City coach Pep Guardiola, who previously coached Barcelona and Bayern to domestic titles, said he regarded the Premier League as the most difficult to win.

“[Because of] the quality of rivals, no doubt it’s the toughest. That’s why being [at the top] is incredible. You give credit for the titles and how huge the rival is. In my career as a manager, I’ve played against incredible sides and there were two that were ‘wow’.

“One is the Barcelona of Luis Enrique, with Neymar, [Lionel] Messi and [Luis] Suárez in front. The other is [the present] Liverpool. I think they’re the best two sides I’ve faced as a manager.”

Ironically, the last time the Premier League was a neck-and-neck race was in the 2013/14 season, when Liverpool last challenged for the title and lost out to City.

Bundesliga fans need to look back even further for a close finish, which was in the 2008/09 season, when Wolfsburg saw off Bayern’s challenge by two points. Both City and Bayern managed to win the domestic double after beating Watford and RB Leipzig 6-0 and 4-1, respectively, in the final.

In Italy, where the league ended last weekend, the Old Lady have won eight consecutive scudetti. AC Milan were the last team that denied Juventus the title back in 2011.

This time around, Juventus were 11 points clear of Napoli, the team they pipped to the title a year earlier.

The same points difference separated Barcelona from Atlético Madrid, who were denied the double by Valencia, who beat Barcelona 2-1 in the cup final.

PSG came close to achieving a fifth consecutive double, but after winning the Ligue 1 title by 16 points ahead of Lille last weekend, the club from the French capital lost the cup final on penalties to Rennes.

The success of the five clubs – all of which made it to the knockout stages of the Champions League this season – has been an ongoing feature in their respective countries for the past few seasons.

Bayern, City, Barcelona, PSG and Juventus have won all but five of the 30 titles on offer over the past six years in Germany, England, Spain, France and Italy.

Football fans will, of course, ask themselves why the top European leagues are so predictable and few will argue that the Champions League provides one of the answers.

In 1964, The Beatles famously took Can’t Buy Me Love to the top of the charts all over the world, but Europe’s lucrative Champions League shows that money can go a long way towards buying you success.

Between them, Barcelona, PSG, Bayern, Juventus and City received an astonishing €270 million (R4.4 billion) for their performances in last season’s Champions League.

Making good use of the millions that they receive for being successful allows them to continue to be successful, which in turn could well mean that next season will be another same old, same old.

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