Just six months after the English suffered possibly the biggest downfall in the history of their national team at the hands of Croatia, the English Premier seems to have had very minimal damage despite this. In a recent post, I mentioned that the English Premier League was dominating the Champion's League with Liverpool, Manchester United, and Chelsea making up three of the four clubs that advanced tot he semifinals. Since then, the second legs of the two semifinals resulted in Manchester United eliminating FC Barcelona and Chelsea eliminating EPL rival Liverpool. This would finally give Manchester United the chance to avenge their recent loss against Chelsea in a recent EPL match.
According to this article from Sports Illustrated, this will be the first time in history that the Champions League final will be an "all-English affair."
In the most recent Sports Illustrated world power rankings, sports writer Jonah Freedman has Manchester United and Chelsea ranked #1 and #2 respectively. He also believes that these two clubs "will end the season as two heavyweights duking it out." These two clubs are not only in the running for this title (the most important as the winner qualifies as the only club from Europe for December's FIFA Club World Cup) but also two of the most prestigious English competition, the FA Cup and the Premier League. In the EPL, they are currently tied on points for the top spot and the title (there are no playoff matches in the EPL unless the season ends with the two clubs tied. If this happens, the clubs--unless any rules were changed--will play one playoff to determine the champion of the league).
The fact that two English clubs have been successful in the Champion's League does not prove that the English national team has made any progress since their embarrassing defeat last November, but it does not prove that they haven't either. Both clubs include players from outside England or even from outside the UK that would not be eligible for the national team. England's next competitive match will not be until after the Euro 2008 final tournament when they will play Croatia in a crucial rematch to open Europe's World Cup 2010 qualifying tournament for their group. This will be a crucial match for both teams and a dramatic way to open qualification. England defeating Croatia will show that England has made a lot of progress since last November.
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