DOWN TO THE WIRE

Are Europe’s biggest necessarily Europe’s best? Not quite, I realize, looking back at season 2008-09. The English Premier League ended on expected lines, although Manchester United did well to win after an uncharacteristically dismal start to their campaign. The Spanish Primera Liga was pretty much a one-horse race, and so was Serie A, Inter winning their fourth successive Scudetto at a canter.

The Bundesliga, on the other hand, packed more excitement than England, Spain and Italy put together. VfL Wolfsburg secured their first ever Bundesliga title with a win on the last day – a day when any of the top three could have won the championship. Ten points was the gap between the top two at the end of the Serie A campaign, while an equal number was all that separated the Bundesliga top six. And that was after newly promoted side TSG Hoffenheim led the league in the first half of the season. It was, overall, a more competitive league than the EPL, La Liga and Serie A, going by the difference between the average points earned per game by the top and the bottom teams.

In Spain, Barcelona’s Samuel Eto’o scored 30 goals in 36 games, while Lionel Messi netted 23 in 31. In contrast, Wolfsburg’s attacking duo, Brazilian Grafite and Bosnian Edin Dzeko, scored a goal more than the Catalan pair’s total, in 10 fewer appearances. And if you thought only the Cristiano Ronaldos of this world had tricks down their shin-pads, check out the video below.



True, the English, Italian and Spanish clubs are likely to prove too strong for Germany’s representatives in next season’s Champions League, but for pure it-ain’t-over-till-the-fat-lady-sings thrill this season, you simply couldn’t beat the Bundesliga.