By the end of Thursday, 16 clubs will be left in the running for the most prestigious trophies in European club football. It is likely six of them will be from Spain. Real Madrid have already secured their berth in the quarter-finals of the Uefa Champions League, and Barcelona, two goals up ahead of their home leg against Arsenal on Wednesday, are well set.
Two more Spanish clubs have first-leg leads going into their Europa League last-16 second legs, and another, Sevilla are at 0-0 after 90 minutes against Basel, with home advantage pending.
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But for the bad luck of the draw, Spain might form half the cast of the Europa League quarters. But either Valencia, or Athletic Bilbao, will definitely become the first Spaniards to fall out of European competition this season, because they were obliged to play a compatriot. Athletic have the edge, 1-0 up from the first 90 minutes.
The striking fact is not that La Liga is so much better represented than any other domestic league at the business end of club football's toughest knockouts — a regular occurrence — but that the ambassadors of a league that produces a regular supply of high scores is providing the rest of the continent with such convincing lessons in defending. In 2016, across Champions League and Europa League, Spanish clubs have between them contested 1,350 minutes of knockout football. In that time, they conceded three goals against non-Spanish opposition.
Put another way, anybody from outside la Liga to have come up against a Spanish side in Europe this year has needed, on average, seven hours to score. The frustrated foreigners include some distinguished names. Napoli, the leaders of Serie A going into the year, did manage a goal against Villarreal, but let in two; Roma, whose domestic form over the past two months has been close to perfect, and prolific, were kept at bay by Real Madrid, and lost 4-0 on aggregate.
Granted, Madrid had Keylor Navas, their goalkeeper, in sharp fettle against Roma. Granted, perhaps Valencia, whom nobody would cite as La Liga’s best example of tight work at the back, had one of the easier tasks in the last 32 of the Europa League by coming up against Rapid Vienna, who they thrashed 10-0 over 180 minutes. But the overall trend must at least challenges the idea that Spanish football is all about attacking fiestas, the kind of heady abandon that produces scorelines like Madrid’s 10-2 win against Rayo Vallecano in December, or Barcelona’s last three winning margins, which — Arsenal beware — add up to 15 goals for; one goal against.
Yet sound, organised defending is fashionable in Spain, and the trendsetters, the standard-bearers, are Atletico Madrid. They resume their bid for a place in the last eight of the Uefa Champions League on Tuesday at 0-0, and are at home against a PSV Eindhoven who must seek a way past a defence that has conceded just four goals in 13 matches in league and Champions League in 2016.
Atletico’s strength, the pride of their coach Diego Simeone, is their parsimony. Their virtue has been to preserve and indeed improve that quality through changes of personnel. When they won La Liga and reached the 2013/14 Champions League final, chief defensive stalwarts were goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and Brazilian stopper Miranda. Both have gone. In the past year, new keeper Jan Oblak and central defender Jose Gimenez emerged as stars in their positions. PSV have a towering, iron barrier to hurdle.
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