Are Bundesliga Teams Actually Out of the Picture in Europe?

Here in Bangladesh, we only get to watch English teams contest against either Italian, Spanish etc opposition in the Champions League due to the new voting system.

So, it's anybody's guess that we definitely won't get to see a Portuguese and a German team contest in Europe's elite club competition, unless they get the highest or second highest number of votes from EPL-crazy fans.

I am referring to the clash between Bayern and Sporting.

In Ten Sports, they have a live update system. Thus, whenever a team scores, an update appears at the bottom of the screen. The clash that Ten Sports was showing as it's live game was the one at the Bernabeu.

The Real-Liverpool match had really not lived up to it's expectations at all. I was nearly asleep on the couch around three a.m when a live update appeared:

Sporting 0- 2 Bayern ( Ribery 42' Klose 57'). I couldn't help but smile.

At the end, Bayern finished the match as 5-0 winners. They are the only team in the competition's history to notch up a five-goal margin in an away game. Bayern, however are veterans of the competition and four-time winners as well.

Barring a six-goal win by Sporting, Bayern should go through to the quarters. Yet, don't count Sporting out just yet, there is a second leg to go.

Let's also not forget, Bayern lie fourth in their domestic league and have lost three out of their four matches in the Bundesliga after the Winter Break.

Now, let's shift our focus to Werder Bremen. There can never be a team who hates the favourite's tag as much as Bremen does! The team is currently languishing in 11th spot in the Bundesliga, 11 points off the relegation zone. In the UEFA Cup, they were at the receiving end of the worst draw possible- AC Milan.

The prospect of being drawn against Milan in the UEFA Cup is almost as daunting as being draw, say, with Barcelona in the Champions League.

Lyon got a draw against Barca, in the first leg while Werder emulated that result in their first leg- the difference being that Lyon scored first while Werder had to equalize almost at the death.

Werder went as underdogs into the San Siro. Yet, a wounded lion at times can be extremely ferocious. At 2-0 down, two Claudio Pizzaro headers in the 68th and 78th minutes saw Werder through, 3-3 on the away goals rule to the Round of 16.

Now, to Hamburger SV. They were up against NEC Nijmegen of the Netherlands and shattered them 4-0 on aggregate- the usual suspects were on target: Olic (twice over two legs), Petric and Trochowski.

The team leads the Bundesliga. They beat Aston Villa 3-1 to top their group during the group stage.Villa fans may argue that they sent in a makeshift team, but a loss is a loss.

Two German teams went out of the UEFA Cup- Wolfsburg and Stuttgart. Stuttgart have a relatively young and inexperienced squad. They were beaten by Zenit (2-1 and 1-2) over two legs by the same scoreline.

Yet, once they develop, they might turn out to achieve much more. (They do have to mend their defensive holes and prevent Jens Lehmaan blunders though.)

Wolfsburg are rather inexperienced in Europe. They went into the Round of 32 unbeaten. They also paid a trip to the San Siro like Werder and managed to get a 2-2 draw after going behind twice.

They also beat Portsmouth, ending Pompey's hopes of qualification. Wolfsburg, somewhat surprisingly went out to PSG. There might be two reasons behind this—either the long winter break broke their momentum or because they lost top striker Grafite to injury.

Let's take a look at Schalke then. They made the quarter-finals of the Champions League last year and only lost to Barca by 1-0 margins in both legs- the reason being Kevin Kuranyi's inability to hit the target.

The league itself is highly entertaining. The table shows how close the race is this season- if you are looking for 3-3 draws, 5-2 wins, 5-0 wins and countless upsets, then this is the league for you!

In the Bundesliga, no team is considered inferior. Even bottom side Borussia Moenchengladbach drew with Bayern, 2-2 and beat Bremen 3-2.

Finally, Bayern are flying the German flag in this year's Champions League while Hamburg and Bremen are flying the red, yellow and black flag in the UEFA Cup. Compared to only one team from Italy, one from Spain and one from England in the UEFA Cup, this is an achievement.

You could argue that English, Spanish and Italian teams dominate the Champions League. A league is however not made out of four dominant teams- the Bundesliga is a good example of that.

The Bundesliga does not lack talent either- Oliver Kahn, Michael Ballack, Jurgen Klinsmann, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Gerd Muller and Franz Beckenbauer all played in the Bundesliga.

Dimitar Berbatov developed in Leverkusen while Alex Hleb developed in Stuttgart. Miroslav Klose has spent an entire career in the Bundesliga while Lother Matthaus, the first FIFA World Player of the Year in 1990, spent sixteen years of his career in the Bundesliga.

Bundesliga teams might be underdogs, but are they really out of the picture in Europe? Maybe not, and hopefully never.