Football magicians Guardiola, Messi & co taught "Showmen" Mourinho, Ronaldo & co a footballing lesson with their 5-0 win in the latest clasico.

If there was any doubt or debate about the following, all questions were answered after the latest 5-0 "Clasico" thrashing of Real Madrid on Monday night in Camp Nou by Barcelona

• The current Barcelona Team remains a much more cohesive unit that the expensively put together Real Madrid so called galacticos! There are several reasons why Barcelona are a better team:

a) Barca players led by Puyal at the back, & Xavi, Inesta, Messi & David Villa with the able assistance of the likes of Alvez & Bosquet know each others' game blindfolded. The Real Madrid team is on the other hand yet again an expensive selection of what money can buy & it may yet take even Mourinho more than one season to mould the team to his style.

b) Barcelona's all attacking style led by the trio of Messi, Inesta & Xavi, arguably the best three players in the world, & this year spearheaded in the attack by David Villa, arguably the best striker in the world, makes them irresistible as well as admirable. Pep Guardiola therefore is the best club coach in the world at the moment.

• Pep Guardiola is a footballing master tactician & magician whilst the ever polarising & arrogant Jose Mourinho is a showman who tries to stifle his opponents with his tactical mastery.

The fact that Mourinho failed to admit absolute humiliation after the 5-0 defeat in his first ever "Clasico" as a coach demonstrated his narcissism. Mourinho went to the Monday night game attempting to stifle Barcelona the same way he did with the much more defensively disciplined Inter Milan side in the semi final of the Champions League last year. But the current Real Madrid side does not possess the defensive qualities of Inter Milan, and Messi, Inesta, Xavi & co this time around kept 67% of the possession AND had the magical David Villa in attack, greatly assisted by Pedro. Last year they had Ibrahimovic who was totally unsuited to Barcelona's style of play.

• Lionel Messi vs Cristiano Ronaldo: Messi was mesmerising & taunted & destroyed Real Madrid midfield & defence all the way throughout the match whilst Ronaldo stood as a lonely frustrated figure.

Messi is one of the top 5-10 greaest footballers of all time & has the potential to be another Maradona. His passing, goal scoring, dribling, ball distribution as well as individual technical ability & playmaking skills are simply superb.

Ronaldo on the other hand is tactically superb too. However, as evident in their latest encounter, he is not as good a playmaker & his ball distribution compared to Messi is poor. This is partly due to the fact that "ball hogging" remain Ronaldo's biggest weakness.

The latest Clasico once again provesd the Spanish la Liga is the best football league in the world & the English Premier League has a long way to go to match the skills & tactical ability of the Spanish League, and even the excitement of watching the likes of Ronaldo & Messi battling it out.

The new European Football Season promises another exciting year ahead

It's only a few weeks since Spain won the World Cup in South Africa. Nevertheless, the Domestic Leagues in Europe are in full swings again. The qualifying matches for Euro 2012 have already started & the first matches of Champions & Europa Leagues have also been completed. Another exciting season is well on the way.

In the European scene the main question yet again is whether the free spending Real Madrid & their brilliant new coach, the annoying & arrogant yet masterful Jose Mourinho can put an end to the domination of Pepe Guardiola & his brilliant ensemble of superstars of Barcelona.

Mourinho is undoubtedly a masterful operator & as was evident in teh Champions League match vs Ajax has already done well by bringing his old general Carvallio as well as the young German World Cup stars Ozil & Khedria to Real Madrid.



On the other hand, Guardiola has cunningly replaced the ineffective Henry & Ibrahimovic with the best striker in the world David Villa. With the likes of Villa, Messi, Puyol, Alvez, Piquet, Iniesta & Xavi (in my view, overall the best player in the world by a mile) Barcelona rightly deserve to be considered the best & should overcome Real's threat once again this year.



Champions League:

Favourites: Barcelona

main Challengers: Chelsea, Manchester United, Inter Milan, Real Madrid & Bayern Munich



Here are my prediction for the other 3 major leagues in Europe:



In England, Chelsea have formed a great team capable of winning the EPL & even the Champions League this year.

Manchester United are suffering from lack of funds to nuy> new players &; with Rooney out of form & in strife in his personal life, will find winning major trophies difficult once again.

Arsenla will be brilliat at times but not good enough to go all the way.

Manchester City's big spending is still hap hazard & will not dent the Chelsea/Man Utd grip.

Spurs will find the challenge of European football too demanding on their squad & will not cope in all fronts.

Liverppol will be in a transition phase for the next few years & unable to mount a serious challenge whilst under current ownership.



My prediction: 1. Chelsea 2. Man Utd 3. Arsenal 4. Manchester City

Relegation candidates: Wigan, Wolves, Blackpool & Bolton



In Italy, the European Champions Inter Milan will not find life under the former Liverpool Manager, the now hapless Rafa Benitez as easy as they did with Mourinho. However, with Juventus still in the doldrums & the rest such as Roma & AC MIlan inconsistent, Inter should once again win Serie A this year, as they have done so in the past few years. Nevertheless, the defence of their European crown will be unsuccessful. Their main threat will be their somewhat rejuvuniated city rivals AC Milan.



In Germany even with the long term injury absence of Robben & with their rivals attracting some of the Europe's superstars to the Bundesliga, Bayern Munich with their Barcelona like style of play will win the league & challenge for European honours again.



All in all, another exciting European season is under way & it should be full of thrills & unpredictable results.

Spain are the best team in the world of football but will they be crowned the World Champions?

The World Cup final on Sunday will feature some of the greatest footballers around the world. Footballers whose records outshine superstars such as Ronaldo, Rooney & the stars of France & Italy who usually get all the media attention but who faded away in this World Cup.

It is broadly acknowledged that the pillars of the success of the great Barcelona side of the last few years led by Lionel Messi are in fact Inesta, Xavi (above first & second from right) & their inspirational Captain Carlos Puyol ,whose goal took Spain to the final of the World Cup.
In Casillas Spain arguably have the best goalkeeper in the world & in David Villa (no 7 above) the striker with the best average goal scoring record in the world. Add to this players such as Piquet & Sergio Ramos, & Pedro who replaced the out of form Torres against Germany & it is easy to see why Spain are such a great side. Even their lesser known players like the no 11 (above) Capdevila of Villarreal have ended up being amongst the stars of the tournament.

It is difficult not to admire Spain & the way they play. They are simply irresistible to watch & play football they way the beautiful game is meant to be played. Commentators, players, coaches, journalists & past great players are all tipping Spain to win the final on Sunday. Even Johan Cruyff, the Captain of the legendary 1974 Holland team credited for creating the concept of total football believes this great Spanish side (& no doubt they are great to watch) will be crowned World Champions on Sunday.

Nevertheless, despite all the well deserved accolades & all the media hype I believe Holland will be crowned Champions on Sunday!

Whilst Spain are superior in tactical & technical terms & have better individual players overall, most media commentators are ignoring the main worrying signs in the Spanish side & idealistically concentrating on the attractive way they play. Yes! Spain have been one of the more attractive teams of the tournament to watch, but they can not be given so much compliment when they have only crawled their way into the final by three hard fought 1-0 results, a 1-0 loss to Switzerland & only above average performances against Chile & Honduras! This is despite the fact that Germany & in particular Italy have in the past won the World Cup despite mediocre performances on the way to winning the Cup.

Nevertheless, my main reason for suggesting that Netherlands will win the final lies in the great performances of the players in the above photo (photo from Euro 2008). Wesley Sneijder & the fit again Arjen Robben have been underestimated by everyone to their benefit!

For the first time in many years (including Gus Hiddink's Holland side of the 1998 World Cup) Bert Marwijk has managed to instill a great team spirit in the notoriously fickle & egotistic Dutch camp, and a team which achieves much more than the sum of its individual players suggests on paper. ie Here's my point:

Spain as a team have produced much less than the sum of their brilliant players on paper would suggest whilst Holland, led by the magnificent four ie Sneijder, Robben, Van Bommel & Van Bronkhorst have prodced much more than their individual players would suggest.

My other reason to believe Holland can win the final is the fact that 7 of their players have scored in this World Cup whilst Spain have been wasteful, missed many goal scoring opportunities & only 3 of their star studded players have scored their miserly 7 goals in six matches. Whilst many commentators have pointed to at times some less than impressive periods by Holland against Uruguay, they have ignored the fact that they have proven they can score goals & come back from behind, whilst Spain have been struggling to score & lost the one match they fell behind as a result of their inability to score.

So my prediction is we can expect an exciting & tactically enticing world class final, perhaps the best since the 1986 final between Germany & Madonna & Argentina, with Holland to win 2-1.

As for the third place play off which is becoming more & more of a prestigious match, I would like to see Germany to cap off a great World Cup with a big margin win, and for Klose to become World Cup's all time highest goal scorer! That's the least Bastina Schweinsteiger, Philip Lahm (above) & the exciting brave German side deserve after their great displays in becoming the first team since the legendary Brazil side of 1970 to score 4 goals in three World Cup matches.