Crystal Palace manager Patrick Vieira has claimed that Liverpool and Manchester City are the best team’s in Europe at the moment.
Vieira was interviewed whilst attending the Premier League Hall of Fame Ceremony last night. The Palace boss was asked to predict who will win the title this season.
“I think I’m like everyone else, waiting to see,” said Vieira via BeanymanSports. “There’s no doubt this is the two best teams in Europe, they’re making the league really exiting. We hope the best will win.”
If Liverpool do end up winning the Premier League this season, a big thank you will be due for Vieira. His Palace side beat City 2-0 at the Etihad in October, before holding them to 0-0 draw last month.
Assessing the contenders in Europe
Football is of course hugely subjective. There are fans and players of other clubs who would no doubt claim that they are the best team in Europe.
But realistically, no one is coming close to Liverpool and City at the moment. Bayern Munich are the club usually cited in any conversations about who can challenge the two English teams. Their defeat to Villarreal has raised some big question marks over that, though.
Real Madrid are looking good in Spain. Having dumped Chelsea out of the Champions League, they’ll be desperate to show City their European pedigree in the semi-final next week.
They are hardly a classic iteration of the 13-time winners of the competition, though. Carlo Ancelotti’s side are heavily reliant on the talents of Luka Modric and Karim Benzema. Great players, but they have a combined age of 70-years-old.
PSG are a proper team on paper and they are romping away with the title in France. But they came up short in Europe yet again. The Italian sides are looking far short of their once great teams as well.
City and Liverpool rise above the rest
The shortcomings of others has highlighted just how far Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp’s sides are from everyone else.
It’s rare in football to get the chance to see two of the very best teams go head-to-head in the biggest game on the planet.
From a Liverpool fan’s perspective, it would also be great if we avoided that in this season’s Champions League final, too.
But as a spectacle, it would be brilliant to see the continent’s two best teams go head to head for the biggest prize on May 28th in Paris.
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