The finals countdown

THE FINALS

COUNTDOWN

It’s showdown time for football’s major prizes

In what seems a faster time than it takes VAR to sort out an offside decision, the football season heads into its

‘business end’ with trophies and relegation issues on the line.

The compressed season has had more than its share of twists and turns, although there is an air of inevitability about where the honours are heading.

Take the major domestic knockout trophies, the Emirates FA Cup and the Carabao Cup, for example. Neither has been won by a side outside the Premier League’s Big Six since 2013, when Wigan Athletic and Swansea City respectively had the audacity to buck the trend that suggested football was becoming a playground for the rich and mega-rich.

Normal service has, sadly, been resumed, to the extent that since Wigan’s intervention, the FA Cup has become the property of just four clubs – Arsenal, who have won it four times, Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City. And it will take a brave man to bet against that stranglehold being broken at Wembley on May 15th.

(To further deflate the romantic notions of anyone hoping for an upset, since Wimbledon’s mind-boggling triumph in 1988, only three other teams – Everton in 1995, Portsmouth in 2008 and Wigan – have prevented the Cup from falling into the clutches of a Big Six which also embraces Liverpool and Tottenham). The Carabao Cup is, of course, an even cosier clique: Since

Swansea, it has been won by either City or a side managed by Jose Mourinho.

Such is the Premier League’s clout and perceived strength, it is tempting to think that dominance has spread across the English Channel into the European competitions.

Indeed, the same names keep occurring… only they are Spanish.

In the last 10 years, there have been just two English winners of the Champions League, Europe’s premier club competition - Liverpool in 2019 and Chelsea in 2012 – although Tottenham, in the all-Premier League final two years ago, Manchester United and Liverpool have reached the ultimate showdown.

In that time, Real Madrid have won it four times, with Barcelona and Bayern Munich scoring two triumphs apiece, although this year’s final on May 29th is at the Ataturk Stadium in Istanbul, a venue etched deep into the

Merseysiders’ folklore. It was there, in 2005, that the Reds overturned a 3-0 deficit to beat AC Milan on penalties to complete one of the great sporting comebacks.

Of all the competitions, the marathon slog that is the Europa League could be the one to be wearing seldom-applied colours after the final in Poland’s stunning Gdansk Stadium on May 26th. Sevilla (four-time champions) and Atletico Madrid (twice) were notable absentees from the latter rounds, leaving the stage clear for unheralded champions.