I don't disagree with your general premise. I think they are absolutely true. In fact, I also believe match-up is just as important factor as some of the more obvious ones. Its so obvious that Liverpool is far inferior to Barca in almost every respect but in retrospect, their rough style ideally suited to defend the attacking flair of Barca players.
But when it comes to mediocre teams doing really well in Europe last 3 years or so, the format is biggest single reason for the explanation. Any team can beat any team on a given day, and Liverpool not being one of strong contenders, IMO, and benefited from this system far more than say ManUre, Inter, Barca, and indeed Chelski. When we reached the final, we had to qualify from a group that included Manchester United, and Depor to just earn the right to play Barca, Real, and Milan. Nobody wil tell me that a team group of Galatasary, PSV, Bordeaux is anywhere near as good as those teams we had to play to reach the final.
When unknown teams did well in Europe before the change in format, they had to be pretty awesome that just did not have name recognition. Teams like Bayer had world class players throughout their team, with likes of Berbatov, Ballack, Ze Roberto, Placente, Lucio, Sneider, Nowotny, Ramelow, etc. Nowadays a team of Park, van Bommel, Lee, Farfan, Hesselink, Cocu, Alex or Bellamy, Crouch, Pennant, or Morientes, Rothen, Bernadi, Givet, are good enough to take you last 4 with some luck and good form.[/QUOTE]Seriously what time scale are you talking about? The Bayer team that got to the final did so in 2002 and thats just 5 years ago with the Monaco team you besmirched did so just 2 years later than Bayer so I am not sure I understand your point. I do not think its the format or anything like that , its more luck of the draw. This year's Cl has been a debacle in terms of quality but that could be attrubuted to a number of reasons. Some teams have underachieved in this competition mainly Barcelona. The world cup hangover for some players has not helped. Another factor is nowadays we all seem to know as much as the managers as we do the players, even referees are becoming household names.In the future ywe might even start to know names of linesmen, if that happens, then i stop watching the sport. Years ago, i never knew names of referees, and i didnt want to know but now we all know their names.
You talk chelsea, you are mainly talking about Mourinho becos there are no players there that really excite you , you talk Liverpool its more of the tactics of Benitez with only Gerrard ben worth talking about. Last year's at least had some great players in the final like Etoo, Ronaldinho,Laarsson, Henry, Deco, Xavi, Henry , Fabregas etc
At least in today's game we have players that can play, like ronaldo, seedorf, rooney, nesta, kaka and Pirlo
Some teams seem to be better equipped for Cl than others like Real madrid, Milan and Liverpool so you cannot discount them whilst some no matter how well they perform do not do well generally in Cl like Barcelona, Inter and sadly our very own Juventus.
It does not help either when countries like scotland are allocated 2 teams in Cl, France and Portugal incredibly are allocated 3 with Greece and Turkey.
Of the teams offered 4 teams only Epl can produce 4 teams that can cope with both Cl and domestic league in the same season and they are manu, liverpool, chelsea and arsenal. In Italy only Milan, Inter and Juventus can do that. In spain Barcelona and Real Madrid with Valencia can cope
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Tell that to Roma. 
It might take us decades to overcome them....Its so frustrating missing it for another year, when these stupid teams can stretch their lead.
