In the last four seasons, Barcelona and Real Madrid have finished 0, 1, 2, and 3 points apart. In the 20 seasons before that, Barcelona and Real Madrid were within 3 points of each other 6 times.
With ManU winning the EL, does that mean the BPL has 8 teams in Europe next campaign? Or does Man. United replace one of the teams that qualified?
No, they still get 7 teams in Europe. Not sure what you mean by "replace one of the teams that qualified". Strictly speaking Man Utd doesn't replace anyone because they would've qualified for the EL based on their league position. So essentially they are moving from the EL to the CL because they won the EL, but the 5th and 7th place teams are still going to the EL (Arsenal & Everton). However, Man Utd does replace a team in the CL group-stage. That team now has to go through qualifying (Slavia Prague, I think).
Ahh ok. But still though yes he might have only been 3 points behind Barca, but the whole way they were playing was unconvincing, and they weren't getting results against quality teams. They lost to Sevilla, Villarreal, Barcelona, and tied with Atletico Madrid.
Yeah but it was a miracle that they beat PSG at the Bernabeu. PSG were dominating them and by far the better side. These are games that happen like 1/00 times when one team dominates so good and still loses. On any other day PSG would have smashed them if they played like that. It was the way Real were playing. Perez noticed that as they went further Benitez would be a failure and he got rid of him before it was too late. Also don't forget what happened vs Shakhtar Donetsk. Real were leading 4-0 and Shakhtar scored 3 and almost a fourth. They were getting results but still were not playing well. Also don't forget PSG is not that good of a team. They lost to Man City for goodness sake.
The same was true after Rafa was fired. Madrid struggled against mid-table Wolfsburg and an ordinary Man City side.
Zidane took some time of course to build the team. In fact they weren't really that good in 15-16. The UCL win was somewhat lucky honestly. It wasn't until January this season when they started to be come so dominant and the best team.
Roma and Napoli would give them a good fight. Well next season City might reinforce better and be stronger, but this season Napoli vs City would be a very tough call to make. Napoli are at least one of the top 12 best teams just so you know. They had a great season. Yes they did lose to Real but Real were probably the best team in the whole season, and they did give Real good games for parts of the team. Real Madrid were just superior and made their chances count, but the game was closer than the aggregate scoreline suggests, especially the first halves of both legs.
Yeah I think you probably are right about City reinforcing better. I know I might be overrating Real a bit, but seriously this season especially the second half, they were a step above everyone else. It clearly showed. Real 3-1 Napoli, Napoli 1-3 Real Bayern 1-2 Real, Real 4-2 Bayern Real 3-0 Atletico, Atletico 2-1 Real Real 4-1 Juventus I mean they won every knockout game except one, and the one they lost, they already had their foot in the final anyway, so its not like they needed a win badly.