It's down to business in the Champions League, and Soccernet have an excellent preview up. I fear it could end in tears for my teams: Liverpool, Barcelona and Ajax (who didn't even qualify, so it's tears already).
But something I can't help noticing is the healthy representation of German clubs.
The Bundesliga is – hands down – the most entertaining top league in Europe... and not just because Uli Hesse-Lichtenberger says so. The German championship is often, scarily often, decided on the last day of the season.
Take a look at this run-down of final-day Bundesliga finishes since I started watching soccer in 1990:
1991/92
1. VfB Stuttgart 21-10-7 +30 52pts
2. Borussia Dortmund 20-12-6 +19 52pts
3. Eintracht Frankfurt 18-14-6 +35 50pts
VfB Stuttgart won the title on goal difference after beating Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 with a goal scored (by a defender, Guido Buchwald) with just two minutes of the season left to play, after going a goal down and having one of their key players sent off. They had to win the game: second-placed Dortmund were beating Duisburg 1-0, and could have edged Stuttgart on goal difference... if they'd won 12-0. But that was never going to happen. Frankfurt could have spoiled both teams' parties, but they lost 1-2 (to a last-minute goal, of course) at Hansa Rostock. Had Frankfurt won, they'd have won the title on goal difference. To give you a proper idea of how mental this season finale was, consider this: at the start of the last game of the season, the top three were: Frankfurt-Dortmund-Stuttgart. With three minutes of the season to go, the top three were: Dortmund-Frankfurt-Stuttgart. It ended (as you'll see above) Stuttgart-Dortmund-Frankfurt.
1992/93
1. Werder Bremen 19-10-5 +33 48pts
2. Bayern München 18-11-5 +29 47pts
Werder Bremen won the title by one point after beating Stuttgart 3-0, but only because of what happened to title rivals Bayern Munich. Bayern had to beat mid-tablers Schalke, but were 2-1 down with 16 minutes of the game (and the season) to play... but they then scored twice to go 3-2 up (giving them a +30 goal difference, which was the same as Bremen's, but Bayern would have won the title by having scored more goals)... but then they had a player sent off and conceded a goal, meaning they could only draw 3-3... which wasn't enough to win the championship.
1993/94
1. Bayern München 17-10-7 +31 44pts
2. 1. FC Kaiserslautern 18-7-9 +28 43pts
Bayern won the title by one point after beating Schalke 2-0 on the last day of the season – but Kaiserslautern finished just one point behind them after scoring two goals in injury time to record a frantic (but futile) 3-1 win over Hamburg.
1994/95
1. Borussia Dortmund 20-9-5 +34 49pts
2. Werder Bremen 20-8-6 +31 48pts
Dortmund won the title by one point on the last day of the season after a routine 2-0 win over Hamburg. But – of course – that's only half the story. If Dortmund had only won 1-0, and if Bremen had managed a draw against Bayern, both Dortmund and Bremen would have finished on 49 log points and +33 goal difference. As it turned out, though, Bremen somehow contrived to lose 1-3.
1999/2000
1.FC Bayern München 22-7-5 +45 73pts
2. Bayer 04 Leverkusen 21-10-3 +38 73pts
Bayern took the title on goal difference after beating Werder Bremen 3-1 on a dramatic final day of the season. Leverkusen would have won the title if they'd only drawn against vowel-free nobodies SpVgg Unterhaching... but they lost their minds, and the game 0-2.
2000/01
1. FC Bayern München 19-6-9 +25 63pts
2. FC Schalke 04 18-8-8 +30 62pts
Schalke knew that they had to beat Unterhaching (those guys again) on the last day of the season, and then hope that Bayern would somehow stuff up their final game at Hamburg. This being Germany, Schalke were of course 0-1 down after four minutes. They managed to turn a 0-2 scoreline into a more respectable (bust still not good enough) 2-2, but then Unterhaching scored again to make it 2-3 with just 20 minutes of the game (and the season) remaining. Schalke finally pulled up their socks and scored three goals in the last 17 minutes to record a handsome 5-3 win... and the celebrations started when Bayern conceded a last-minute goal at Hamburg. Schalke win, Bayern lose, Schalke win the title. Right? Nein. Bayern scored a crazy goal in the fourth minute of injury time to scrape the draw, the point and the championship.
2001/02
1. BV 09 Borussia Dortmund 21-7-6 +29 70pts
2. Bayer 04 Leverkusen 21-6-7 +39 69pts
3. FC Bayern München 20-8-6 +40 68pts
Going into the last day, Bayern knew they had to beat Hansa Rostock, and then hope that both Leverkusen (at home to Hertha Berlin) and Dortmund (at home to Werder Bremen) lost their games. This being Germany, anything's possible, so you couldn't blame Bayern for playing their lederhosen off and going into a 3-0 lead against Hansa. But when news filtered through from the other two title hopefuls, Bayern gave up and sulked off with just a 3-2 win and no shiny trophy. That's because Leverkusen beat Hertha 2-1 to set up a dramatic championship triumph... which didn't happen, because – despite going 0-1 down at Werder – Dortmund recovered to win 2-1 (the winner coming, of course, with just 16 minutes of the season left to play) to take the title by one beautiful punkt.
2008/09
1. VfL Wolfsburg 21-6-7 +39 69pts
2. FC Bayern München 20-7-7 +29 67pts
Last season's final Bundesliga table shows an eight-point spread over the top five teams – which, with each team playing 34 games and with three points being awarded for every win, means a competition that's about as tight as the shorts soccer players used to wear in the 1980s. Thoroughly deserving Wolfsburg eventually won the title by a massive two points, but they did so by scoring 10 goals in their last two matches... and by beating Werder Bremen 5-1 on the final day, rendering meaningless Bayern's 2-1 win at third-placed Stuttgart.
So you can keep your English Premiership. The Bundesliga is where it's at.