Champions League: Spain and Germany go head-to-head

By Andy Brassell European football expert

After the Champions League semi-final draw, even the most ardent Premier League fan would be hard-pressed to complain.

Few would argue that this year's last four - Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid - are not the continent's finest at the moment.

The Champions League draw means there could be an all-German or all-Spanish final

The Bundesliga has become more and more globally popular in recent years, but this is the first time that its elite are coming head-to-head with the two teams generally assumed to be the best in world club football.
Spain and Germany's domestic competitions have long been assumed to be polar opposites. Spain's big two are untouchable, with almost all of the rest of the top flight in financial crisis.
Germany, on the other hand, is seen as a model of sensible financial management - even if this does overlook recent problems at Schalke, for example. Dortmund have been a flagship, winning successive Bundesliga titles with a vibrant team composed mainly of young German players.
This season, La Liga and the Bundesliga have had a little more in common. While Barcelona have streaked clear at the top in Spain, Bayern Munich have even more ruthlessly left the competition behind. Jupp Heynckes' team sealed the title on the first weekend of April, 20 points ahead of champions Dortmund.
Nobody is saying just yet that the Bundesliga has become uncompetitive - one cannot judge trends from only one season's evidence. Yet it seems as if a duopoly is developing in Germany to mirror the Spanish one.
Even if Bayern have reclaimed the German title from Dortmund by a comfortable margin this season, the Munich side have been driven to distraction by the Westfalen side's quality in recent seasons. There is a feeling on both sides that this will be an enduring rivalry.
So we may well be looking at two different models of operation - Barcelona and Real Madrid retain the cream of the world's superstars and run up big debts, while Bayern and Dortmund go for more prudent housekeeping.Yet we are also seeing European club football's two major sparring partners in action, with the possibility of a reprise of their domestic face-offs at Wembley on 25 May.