Despite being Champions League regulars, top clubs from the Premier League have struggled to blend heft and finesse to make iconic teams

England’s clubs have been achieving prominence rather than excellence in the Champions League. Of late, it has mostly been the statistics that catch the eye. There has, for instance, been at least one Premier League side in six of the last seven finals. These teams have stoked the drama, particularly in 2005 when Steven Gerrard, with dynamism and talent, seemed to topple Milan single-handedly in Liverpool’s recovery from 3-0 down. In recent times, however, no team from this country has been cherished without qualification for the sheer delight its football offers.

Arsenal, with their insistence on aesthetic values, are often pleasing, but the combination of Jens Lehmann’s dismissal in the 18th minute of the 2006 final and the emerging prowess of the opposition opened up the first phase of Barcelona’s mastery. Despite the cosmopolitan nature of the Premier League, the lineups comprising footballers from all over the globe can still look parochial in style. They are not alone in faltering when confronted with La Liga excellence but England is one of the few countries with the means to afford performers of the very highest standard.

It still does not look as if we necessarily get the best out of them. The attention often falls on Premier League games in which elite sides are pitted against one another but the average match still tends to have a scrappy and hot-blooded character. That indeed is the sort of occasion to be enjoyed by fans who understand perfectly well that the silkiest of footballers will not be joining their club in the foreseeable future. For all the marketing hyperbole, the game in this country retains its ancestral purpose of warming the heart on a winter’s day.

For good or ill, television coverage and a cosmopolitan transfer market have not erased the differences between one country’s football culture and another. Even now we take it for granted that overseas players should be given time to acclimatise to the sort of matches we anticipate in England. They do this to good effect but in the process some of the refinement that made them so attractive in the first place gets diminished.

We often hear the euphemism about a foreign signing who “has to get used to the pace of our game”. This means that he had better be prepared for rough treatment. The sport is far cleaner than it once was because we now have the technology to identify wrongdoing that escaped the referee at the time but our culture still prizes the physical challenge. While there is plenty of muscle in teams from other countries, a better balance between heft and finesse is reached.

It may be telling that the one final to be won by an English club since Gerrard’s exploits came in 2008 when Manchester United defeated Chelsea, a fellow member of the Premier League, on penalties in Moscow. In four of the last six finals an English representative has been beaten by a side from the continent. We are fooling ourselves if we believe that these teams adapt perfectly when switching from Premier League football to the upper tier of the European variety.

There are ramifications to the provincialism that makes us demand, unconsciously or otherwise, that there should be a tremendous collision when teams meet. It is a little unreasonable to judge other sides by the standard of Barcelona. However, their aim has been to accommodate both deftness and brawn. Those qualities can even exist within the same body. So it is that the holding midfielder Sergio Busquets does not look as if his inclusion beside Andrés Iniesta is any kind of clerical error.

All club sides fall short of Barcelona for the time being. Real Madrid are second favourites to land the trophy but that does not necessarily put them close to Pep Guardiola’s lineup. There was desperation as much as passion in José Mourinho this season when he poked Barcelona’s assistant coach Tito Vilanova in the eye. Real were edged out in the second leg of the Supercopa. In addition to the sheer accomplishment, Barcelona have a strong competitive instinct even in games that were mere curtain-raisers.

Geometry and finesse set the side apart but they also act as if there is still a great deal to be achieved. If there is less diversity to La Liga than in former years then Barcelona could keep themselves to the fore without being drained of energy in the domestic arena as the English clubs could be. Should the Champions League trophy come to Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge, Etihad Stadium or the Emirates next May it will be a success truly to be treasured.

Champions League 2011-12BarcelonaLiverpoolManchester UnitedArsenalChelseaChampions LeaguePremier LeagueKevin McCarraguardian.co.uk