La Liga best in Europe – say stats

Spanish sides dominant on the continent

The English Premier League was once believed to be the number one domestic division in European football. The cream of the crop. No more, and the stats are there to prove it.

Exciting, of course, it’s hard to believe a Real Betis, or a Crotone or even a Mainz doing what Leicester City did last season. Fans love the unpredictability of England’s flagship football competition. But in terms of success against its neighbours, the Premier League leaves a lot to be desired.

A quick-fire example of how far off the pace English football is at present is shown perfectly by the fact it has one side left in the Champions League, at the quarter-finals stage, and that’s Leicester City. The same Leicester Coral have marked up as 33/1 outsiders to go and win it.

La Liga controlling the Champions League

Spain is leading the way on that front, with Real and Atletico Madrid still in with a chance at the odds to lift this year’s trophy. Let’s look at the breakdown of nationality between the eight remaining sides. The score is Spain 3 – Germany 2 – Italy 1 – England 1 – France 1. Let’s take a quick glance over the list of recent winners for more evidence.

A Spanish club has won each of the last three renewals of UEFA’s top prize, with two of those finals being an all-Spanish affair. Scanning over the last decade worth of results, we’ve had five Spanish winners, two Italian, two English and a German. Overall, Real Madrid are, by far, the competition’s most successful side, on 11 wins. We then have Italian giants Milan on seven, Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Liverpool all tied on five. England are third in the performance by nation rankings, behind Spain and Italy.