EPL big guns silenced by Spaniards

LONDON: As Wayne Rooney and company left the Stadio Olimpico pitch to lick their wounds after last season's Champions League final, they trudged past Barcelona's players joyously tossing coach Pep Guardiola into the air.

The message was clear for all to see. Spanish soccer was on the up and the Premier League's big-guns were facing a significant threat to their position of pre-eminence in Europe.

Just 12 months previously United and Chelsea had rolled into Moscow for the first all-English Champions League final, a feat which was heralded as the start of a period of Premier League dominance of Europe's elite club competition.