Champions League semifinals highlight European power shift

This season’s Champions League semifinals features two German and two French teams, a sign that European soccer power has shifted.

There was a time back in the 1980’s and early ‘90s where Italy’s Serie A was the world’s top league. Part of the evidence supporting that argument was the European dominance of AC Milan in those years.

The 2000’s brought the Premier League into dominance, soon followed by La Liga and the eternal power struggle between rivals Barcelona and Real Madrid. Over the last 20 years, for example, the Champions League has been won nine times by Spanish clubs, followed by four by English ones.

While many would argue the Premier League remains the planet’s top domestic competition — this season’s Champions League semifinalists may reveal a power shift in European soccer. Bayern Munich remains favorites to win it all, but the three other clubs left in this competition, like Bundesliga side RB Leipzig and French ones PSG and Lyon, have all never lifted the trophy.

The Champions League quarterfinals features some unfamiliar faces

Instead of the Champions League confirming what we have come to expect (like Lionel Messi being the best player in the world), the tournament has given us some new revelations to ponder (like the season-long dominance of Bayern striker Robert Lewandowski). At the same time, PSG’s years of spending (on the likes of Neymar and Mauro Icardi) may finally pay off, while RB Leipzig and Lyon are examples of how Cinderella sides can sneak into the latter rounds of the tournament thanks to a strong work ethic and all-around team efforts.

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German soccer has always been successful, both on the club and national teams levels. The rise in global popularity of the Bundesliga over the last few years — something that helps their coffers because of the sale of lucrative TV rights — is now showing itself in the world’s biggest club competition. More money from the sale of TV rights and global marketing around the brand via jersey sales makes teams more money to be able to spend on the transfer market. That, in turn, attracts the world’s best players.

France’s Ligue 1 has also waited years to shine. Not as popular as Europe’s four big leagues, French soccer has seen a steady rise since the 1998 World Cup. Since then, France won two World Cups and a European Championship. On the club level, PSG and Lyon remain two of the country’s biggest spenders. They are outliers compared to the rest of the league, but they nonetheless represents a power shift.

One could argue that this season’s Champions League, modified as a result of the coronavirus pause, can’t be compared to previous editions. It’s as if the results of the last week wouldn’t have otherwise happened had the quarterfinals remained a home-and-away format. Maybe, but we can only dissect and assess the results we saw, not the ones that could have happened.

This year’s format may have favored the French, who saw the remainder of their league canceled soon after the virus spread. All those months of inactivity may have actually helped, not hurt, while favorites Juventus, Manchester City, Real Madrid and Barcelona slugged it out throughout the summer in league competition only for them to lose steam this month.

Bundesliga teams enjoyed a longer break between their season and the Champions League restart after they became Europe’s first domestic league to return to action following the country’s successful virus testing program that helped limit infections.

This year’s semifinalists left in their wake tons of upsets: Bayern’s 8-2 rout of Barcelona, RB Leipzig’s 2-1 victory against Atletico Madrid and Lyon’s 3-1 stunner, spearheaded by Moussa Dembele, at the expense of Man City. The next week will give us a new European champion. Will we get an all-German or all-French final in the bubble of Lisbon?

This newfound Franco-German domination of the Champions League could very well be the start of a power shift in Europe, something that fans of these two leagues have been waiting a long time for. Time will tell if the events of the past week are an outlier or a trend that will see German and French clubs dominate the Champions League for the next decade.