{"id":1197835,"date":"2021-03-31T13:05:05","date_gmt":"2021-03-31T12:05:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?p=1197835"},"modified":"2021-03-31T12:42:18","modified_gmt":"2021-03-31T11:42:18","slug":"la-liga-teams-european-struggles-real-madrid-barcelona","status":"publish","type":"features","link":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/la-liga-teams-european-struggles-real-madrid-barcelona\/","title":{"rendered":"Is La Liga’s European empire in decline? The possible causes of Spanish football’s recent continental struggles"},"content":{"rendered":"

All empires fall. If the Mongol Empire, British Empire, Russian Empire and Palpatine\u2019s Galactic Empire <\/strong>all eventually retreated, then La Liga\u2019s dominance of European football was never going to continue <\/strong>on forever either.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the decade between 2011 and 2020, La Liga clubs won the Champions League six times, the Europa League six times and seven UEFA Super Cups too. From 2012 to 2020, La Liga permanently remained top of the UEFA country coefficient rankings for club football, so strong were Spanish sides\u2019 performances on the continent.<\/p>\n

However, La Liga teams have had their struggles of late. No Spanish side has reached a Champions League final since Real Madrid completed their three-peat in 2018, and this year it\u2019s only Los Blancos who have made it to the quarters. Although they love the European Cup like a dog loves your favourite slipper, it\u2019s going to be a tough ask for Zinedine Zidane\u2019s side to go all the way in 2020\/21.<\/p>\n

As it stands, Real Madrid are the sixth-favourites to lift the Champions League for the 14th time, priced at 10\/1 by Sky Bet<\/a> behind PSG (7\/1<\/a>), Liverpool (11\/2<\/a>), Chelsea (5\/1<\/a>), Bayern Munich (7\/2<\/a>) and Manchester City (2\/1<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Last year, Barcelona famously suffered their 8-2 humiliation in the one-legged Champions League quarter-finals in Lisbon, while Atl\u00e9tico Madrid also fell to German opposition with a 2-1 defeat to RB Leipzig. No other Spanish outfit even made it to the final eight.<\/p>\n

In the Europa League, Sevilla went all the way in 2019\/20 to lift that chunky trophy for the sixth time and they gave Bayern Munich a run for their money in the subsequent UEFA Super Cup, but their 2020\/21 Champions League last-16 exit means they won\u2019t be brushing any continental confetti off their shoulders at end of this season. Atl\u00e9tico Madrid, Barcelona and Real Sociedad were all thoroughly demolished in knockout ties this season, too, leaving only Real Madrid in the Champions League and Villarreal and Granada in the Europa League still flying the Spanish flag.<\/p>\n

So, why are La Liga clubs no longer dominating in quite the same way? Here\u2019s a look at a few contributing factors.<\/p>\n

Messi got older and Ronaldo left<\/strong><\/h2>\n

There\u2019s no doubt that Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are the best players to have ever played in the Champions League. Messi has 120 goals from 149 Champions League appearances and Ronaldo has 134 from 176, highlighting how consistently brilliant they have been.<\/p>\n

But Messi is now approaching his 34th birthday and his scoring rate has logically slowed, especially in Europe. Over the five seasons between 2010\/11 and 2014\/15, he netted 10.4 goals on average each Champions League season and had 3.6 assists. The averages for the next five seasons were down to 7.6 and 2.4 respectively. That makes sense. His record-breaking year of 91 goals was in 2012, almost a full decade ago now.<\/p>\n

As for Real Madrid, their own superhero footballer departed in 2018. Ronaldo\u2019s move to Juventus hasn\u2019t worked out for any of the three parties — at least in a European sense for Ronaldo and Juve — and is one of the reasons why Los Blancos went out at the last-16 stage in the subsequent two seasons.
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