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No teams from the self confessed overhyped best league in the world made it then.
The first semifinals without an Italian or Spanish team since about 1991.
So when it was spurs v Liverpool in last years final was the Premier league by far the best league in the world?
In terms of the top-flight divisions, I believe the Premier League is the best league in the world. I don't believe it always throws up the best teams by any stretch of the imagination, although it does do that on occasions. However, I think its strength lies in a combination of factors - the quality of the players and managers it attracts throughout its clubs, the fact that it's usually so competitive by comparison to the other major European leagues, its strength in depth and the fact that the title is generally a realistic goal for significantly more clubs that the rest of the major leagues.
This season I don't believe the Premier League has been great. Liverpool have walked it, Manchester City were far too erratic and the rest of the major clubs are clearly in periods of transition. However, the league still threw up a winner in Liverpool who hadn't won the competition in its new format and hadn't won the English top flight since 1990. Compare that with Germany, where Bayern won their eighth title on the trot, Italy where Juventus won their ninth on the trot, France where PSG won for the seventh time in the last eight attempts and Spain, where the usual suspects finished first, second and third.
There is a reason the English Premier League is the most-watched football league in the world in terms of TV audiences and it's not just hype.
La Liga is obviously a strong league in terms of the quality of its best teams (under normal circumstances, at least), but by the time you get halfway down the division I reckon it gets significantly weaker by comparison to the Premier League. I believe the same is true of the Bundesliga - the clubs at the top are very strong, but the league overall isn't.
For instance, Hertha Berlin finished tenth this season. Marko Grujic made more league starts for them than any other player. I've watched Hertha on several occasions in recent years during trips to Berlin and, while it's been a great experience, they and their opponents have never looked anything except weak by our top flight's standards. I would expect the Hertha sides I've watched to be relegated from the Premier League with the type of points total Norwich achieved. Of course, that's just an opinion, but the football played by mid-table Bundesliga sides has looked Championship level to me.
I've watched a lot of Bundesliga too, and always thought the same. Always thought of Hertha as West Ham type level (not just because of the Olympic Stadium connection) rather than quite as lowly as the Norwich of last season.
I think the English leagues in general are strong. I had friends across from Germany last year and to punish them I took them to see the team down the road from me, Crawley Town. It was a good, entertaining game to their surprise and they didn't think the standard was that much lower than Bundesliga 2.