It was with more than the usual haste that I strode off from the Nou Camp after Frank Rijkaard’s customary non-committal news conference on the eve of Barcelona’s Champions League match against Schalke on Tuesday. Liverpool against Arsenal was being shown on terrestrial TV here in Spain and it was one of those games that you didn’t want to miss.

So I settled down to my usual Reuters expenses supper of a bottle of beer and a Kit Kat from the hotel minibar and wasn’t disappointed. For sheer breathless excitement, intensity and entertainment the match couldn’t be beaten. The game had the Spanish commentators gasping with delight at the football being played by both sides, the commitment from the players and the non-stop support from the fans.

The next day the Spanish media was awash with tributes to the English game, with sports daily AS even managing to bring in an unexpected reference to Nelson and Trafalgar in their editorial on the match.

The Admiral’s famous “England expects every man to do his duty,” was the motto of English football, said the paper’s director Alfredo Relaño.

“There may have been almost no English players on the pitch, but this was pure English football,” he said. “It was open, attacking football, full of commitment, enthusiasm, risk and nobility.

“The fact that there were few English players involved showed that this sort of football has nothing to do with genetics but with the atmosphere in the English game, one of respect, fair play, solidarity and a job well done. Players who in other leagues are cheats, moaners and defensive turn into exemplary competitors in England. This is how football should be played.”

Now Alfredo may have got a little carried away with his purple prose but there is little doubt that with three sides in the Champions League semi-finals for the second year in a row England is without doubt the dominant force in European club football (See Mike Collett’s analysis and lots of other stuff on our main soccer site).

The contrast with Spanish football at the moment couldn’t be sharper. Admittedly they still have two sides in European competitions, but the quality in La Liga has undergone a worrying downturn in the last two seasons.

The patient, short-passing game favoured by so many Spanish sides is past its sell-by date. The stop-start nature of matches in the Primera Liga does little to prepare teams for the intensity of European encounters, while the players are struggling to match with the sheer physicality of English-based players.

Where the best players were once clamouring to join Spanish sides, an increasing number are now looking to England first and it isn’t just because of the money on offer. Being part of a top English club now appears to offer the best chance of success in the continent’s elite competition.

I get the impression it is the same story in other European leagues. Is there anything they can do to stop the English domination?

Simon Baskett

PHOTO: Carlos Tevez scores with a diving header to give Manchester United a 1-0 win on the night and a 3-0 aggregate victory over AS Roma in their Champions League quarter-final. Roma were Italy’s last representatives in this year’s competition, April 9. REUTERS/Darren Staples

On Sunday night, after five years of calm, Barcelona fans finally exploded. The white handkerchiefs — a common way of showing frustration in Spain’s stadiums — were out, against the club president, the coach, the players … anybody involved in what seems set to be a second straight trophy-less year.

More precisely, Sunday’s exhibition was against the perceived apathy of millionaire players who appear to move ever more slowly, as if they weren’t in the match at all.

People have had enough.

Ronaldinho, the Brazilian who brought magic, enthusiasm and decisive goals two and three years ago to the Nou Camp, is now injured and will miss the most important matches of this very mediocre season. As for Thierry Henry, the fans have pretty much given up hope.

Only the youngsters Bojan and Giovanni seem hungry for titles, but their youth make it difficult for them to resolve the crucial matches at this point in the season.

Barcelona now face an “easy” quarter-final against Schalke 04, having won in Germany 0-1, but the fans aren’t excited. Winning and passing on to a probable semi-final against Manchester United isn’t an encouraging prospect to most fans, many of whom just want the season to end so changes can be made, heads can roll.

People are not hurt about the team not winning so much as what looks like a lack of interest and involvement. ”Menys millons i mes collons!” they shout. “Fewer millions and more balls.”

PHOTO: Henry takes a breather during the Getafe game, April 6, 2008. REUTERS/Albert Gea

It was just like old times for me covering Frank Rijkaard’s press conferences either side of Barcelona’s Champions League win over Schalke, as another Dutch coach got the Louis van Gaal treatment from the media.

I was based in Barcelona when Van Gaal finally called it quits at the end of his first spell at the club and listening to the Catalan press and radio hounding out the former Ajax man was at times almost painful.

Barcelona’s 3-2 defeat by Real Betis at the weekend led to headlines calling the Schalke game an “ultimatum”, while Rijkaard was asked whether a jokey conversation, caught on camera, about him carrying a parachute as hand luggage for the flight had any deep significance.

The difference is that not only does Rijkaard have more credit built up than Van Gaal did — thanks to the Champions League win in 2006 — but that the younger man refuses to rise to the bait. Van Gaal could never resist getting into arguments with journalists, while Rijkaard simply smiles, leans back and mumbles a few well-worn phrases about the team having to work harder.

So what to make of the Schalke game, which was won 1-0 thanks to a goal from the ludicrously talented 17-year-old Bojan Krkic?

If Barcelona go on to win the tie and reach the semi-finals, as they surely now should, it will be remembered as a textbook display in a European away game. That’s not the real story.

This was a case of Barcelona showing the same failings as they had against Betis, when they let slip a two-goal lead, but getting away with it.

Barcelona were so superior to Schalke in the first half that it was quite ridiculous. Xavi and Iniesta in midfield strolled around the Arena AufSchalke as if they owned the place, creating what seemed to be an endless series of passes that led to the early goal for Bojan and should have brought them many more.

In the second half Barcelona just stopped playing, and failed to create a single scoring chance. Schalke showed how you beat them by not giving them anything like the time on the ball they had in the first half, pouring players down the wings and sending high balls into the middle. A better team would have had them.

It’s worth remembering that Deco, Ronaldinho and Messi all missed the game through injury, while Eto’o looked barely fit. Still, it must be frustrating to Barcelona fans to see a team with such talented players play themselves into trouble again and again.

What’s the next step? From talking to my colleagues from Barcelona it looks more and more like a change of coach at the end of the season, even if Rijkaard doesn’t quite have his parachute packed yet.

Kevin Fylan, Gelsenkirchen

Is Ronaldinho about to become the latest player to leave the Nou Camp by the back door?

Marca and the rest of the Madrid-based media seem convinced of it, meaning we could be about to see the former World Player of the Year following the well trodden path of such luminaries as Rivaldo, Ronaldo, Romario, Juan Roman Riquelme, Luis Figo, Hristo Stoichkov, Bernd Schuster and Maradona.

All of these players underwent the transformation from Nou Camp idol to persona non grata in a remarkably short space of time.

Maradona left for Napoli after a traumatic two-year spell at the club marked by a bout of hepatitis, a horrendous tackle by Athletic Bilbao defender Andoni Goikoetxea, rumours of drug taking and a mass brawl after the final of the King’s Cup.

Schuster was ousted after walking out following the team’s defeat in the 1986 European Cup and a subsequent legal wrangle with the club. Romario and Stoichkov were not on speaking terms with then coach Johan Cruyff when they left the club.

Ronaldo departed at the peak of his powers after just one glorious season with the Catalans in which he racked up 34 goals in 37 matches, deciding that he would get better treatment at Inter Milan.

Luis Figo, of course, famously defected to Real Madrid after he was offered a more succulent deal by presidential candidate Florentino Perez, while Rivaldo was revered for the wonderful hat-trick that put Barca in the Champions League only to be ushered out of the side door a year later.

Other top Barcelona players such as Gary Lineker, Steve Archibald, Ivan de la Peña and Patrick Kluivert could all have left under better circumstances. Ronaldinho’s career at Barcelona appears to be following a depressingly familiar line.

Having guided Barcelona to two league titles and victory in the Champions League in his first three seasons at the club he is now being accused of failing to pull his weight.

Fitness problems, no-shows at training, a series of below-par performances on the pitch and rumours about late nights have all served to tarnish his reputation. Some of the local media even say that Barca will be prepared to let him leave on a free transfer at the end of the season, while the latest stories suggest he could exercise FIFA’s article 17 and buy himself out of the contract for a song.

It is hard to believe that only two seasons ago he was the most sought-after player on the planet. What is it about Barcelona’s tendency to devour its own sons?

We asked at the start of this season whether it was time Barcelona let Ronadinho go, and the consensus was that it would be too great a loss for the club. I wonder how many people have changed their minds.

Simon Baskett, Madrid

PHOTO: Ronaldinho reacts during the Atletico Madrid-Barcelona match in Madrid, March 1. REUTERS/Susana Vera

It is has already been dubbed the league title no one wants to win and with its succession of mishaps, slip-ups, fall-outs and injuries, this season’s Primera Liga plot has taken more twists than even the most low-budget Spanish afternoon soap opera.

Leaders and defending champions Real Madrid appear to be caught in a dangerous downward spiral, losing five of their last eight league matches, while Barcelona are struggling to take advantage of their arch-rivals’ errors.

Although they closed to within four points of Real at the top of the table after their flattering 4-1 win over Valladolid at the weekend, the Catalans have won just one of their last four games and continue to look unsettled and nervy when they take to the pitch.

Real, meanwhile, managed to pluck defeat from the jaws of victory against Valencia, losing out thanks to an 89th minute breakaway goal from former Atletico Madrid forward Angel Arizmendi.

Marca’s leading football correspondent Santiago Segurola described the match as an example of a new footballing genre called “epicomedia” - an unexpected reaction caused by a mixture of the epic and the comic.

The epic element came from Real’s frantic attempts to win the game by throwing everyone forward and peppering the Valencia goal with shots in the final 10 minutes. The comedy came from their defending, with Fabio Cannavaro conceding an unnecessary penalty and badly misjudging his attempt to stop Arizmendi before he snatched the win.

Barca should be rubbing their hands in delight at Real’s predicament, but instead they are suffering their own crisis of confidence. Defeat in the semi-finals of the King’s Cup at the hands of Valencia, speculation about a possible fall-out between Rijkaard and Ronaldinho, the absence through injury of Lionel Messi, Thierry Henry’s failure to settle and continued defensive frailty mean that the Catalans appear as vulnerable as Real.

The weaknesses of the top two should have thrown the door open to more challengers, but of all the other possible contenders only Villarreal have managed to stay in the title race.

Manuel Pellegrini’s side are on a four-match winning streak, but they hardly set the world alight with their late 2-1 win at basement side Levante on Sunday.

The league title is there for the taking, but who will eventually triumph - an anxious Real, an unhinged Barcelona or an unfancied Villarreal?

PHOTO: Real Madrid’s Pepe gestures during their defeat by Valencia at the Bernabeu, March 23, 2008. REUTERS/Juan Medina