BILLY BUNTER

Weblog: The football punter

Optimum conditions help Spanish dominate

WHEN living with beautiful weather, beautiful women and beautiful food it's no surprise that your general performance in life improves.

In fact the world would bea far fairer place both on and off the pitch if optimum conditions such as these were available to all countries – a level playing field if you will. Until then it's no surprise to see the Spanish flourish in football.

This week under optimum conditions we have witnessed the sheer dominance of Spanish football in the Champions League, with Barcelona and Real Madrid both making straightforward progress.

The same could be said about Valencia, who entertain Dutch side AZ tonight. The Mestalla-dwellers are one of the finest examples of excelling in optimum conditions, having only been beaten once at home in the Europa League since 2002.

I'm not meaning to sound bitter at all and I certainly wouldn't say that I was jealous of the Spaniards' football or even their food or women or climate, I just slightly prefer it to an afternoon of long-ball football served up with a soggy VAT-filled pasty in the drizzling rain.

Until optimum conditions are fairly measured out between all countries, the Spanish will always have an advantage and will therefore continue to progress.

Expect them to complete a hat-trick tonight as Athletic Bilbao, Valencia and Atletico Madrid all book their places in the Europe league semi-finals.