Pride of Europe set for a fall?

By Massimo Gonnella

When the UEFA Champions League group stage format was introduced in the early 1990s, one of the results was that the strongest clubs from the biggest footballing countries often avoided each other in the earliest stages of the competition.

Sporting merits
However, UEFA has always insisted that access to European club competitions would have to be earned on sporting merits via the respective domestic championships as well as results obtained in European competition through the previous years. That is why the UEFA Champions League contains a sophisticated system of qualifying rounds to determine the participants for the group stages that start in September every year.

Struggling sides
Looking back at the past three seasons since the UEFA Champions League format was revised into two group stages with 32 participants, many so-called 'big' clubs have struggled in the various qualifying stages.

Plain sailing for England
The country that has shown most consistency in the qualifying rounds is England. Over the past three seasons all three English clubs involved in qualifying matches have reached the group stages with ease. In 1999, Chelsea FC landed a comfortable 3-0 home win over FC Skonto before a goalless away draw. The following year Leeds United AFC beat Germany's TSV 1860 München both home and away, while Liverpool FC qualified in 2001 with a 9-1 aggregate win over FC Haka from Finland.

Italian clubs struggling
By contrast Italian clubs have struggled. In 1999, Parma AC were 'relegated' to the UEFA Cup by Rangers FC after a 2-0 defeat at Ibrox stadium and a 1-0 home win two weeks later. They were followed by Internazionale FC the following year, when the Milan side failed to turn around a 1-0 defeat in Sweden against Helsingborgs IF after drawing 0-0 at the Giuseppe Meazza stadium. And last year it was again Parma's turn to fall short of the group stages after suffering a humiliating 2-0 home defeat against Lille OSC in the French side's first-ever European match.

Spanish armada
Apart from RCD Mallorca who were eliminated in 1999 by Norway's Molde FK on away goals, Spanish clubs have performed extremely well over the last three seasons and, like the Spanish, only one German club has failed to reach the first group stage - Munich's 1860 when they lost to Leeds in 2000.

French falling behind
Even though Olympique Lyonnais are the only French club to have failed to reach the first group stage (after losing twice to NK Maribor in 1999) French clubs' performances in the Champions League have been less impressive over the last few years when it comes to the latter stages of the competition, with none of the eight French participants during the last three seasons reaching the quarter-finals.

Surprises ahead
This week's second leg matches in the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round may again produce some surprises. Once again, sides from Italy are far from assured of reaching the group stages. After a goalless draw in Portugal against Sporting Clube de Portugal and a narrow 1-0 home victory against FC Slovan Liberec respectively, both Internazionale and Milan AC will have to perform at their best to avoid falling by the wayside before the season has really started.

United look to maintain record
Meanwhile, England's enviable record in the qualifying rounds is also at stake as Manchester United FC try to overturn a surprising 1-0 first-leg reverse against Zalaegerszegi TE.