edmundo, using Champions league matches to draw comparisons between teams or leagues is one of the most deceptive and unappropriate excercises. cups are a completely different kind of competition from leagues and it's absolutely unappropriate to establish any sort of rankings or conclusions from their results.
let's make some practical examples. the current champions league winner, inter, beated barcelona in the semi last year.... yet it would be absolutely preposterous to use this result to prove the point that inter is a better team than barca. the only logic assesment we can make is that inter was better than barca
in that specific double matchup... and that's it.
inter got embarassed by schalke just a few weeks ago... yet no one in his mind would ever say schalke is a better team than inter.
theese are only 2 examples, but i could mention dozens of cases like theese.
so the fact that schalke beated valencia or that sevilla lost to fenerbache, really doesn't prove anything at all.
there are so many variables in champions league matchups that it's impossible to use them to support any sort of argument. the most important of theese factors being form. the form of every club fluctuates during a season. inter beated bayern in CL a few months ago..... but if that match would have occurred, say, one month earlier, bayern would have kicked the crap out of inter. milan lost to tottenham about one month ago, but if the match would be played again right now, the result would be completely different. inter lost to shalcke a few weeks ago... but if that match would have been played in febbruary, then inter would have been demolished shalcke.... while in november (when inter was facing a terrible period) inter could have easily lost even to a bundesliga relegation contender team.
so no, champions league matches results can't be used to argue your point. the domestic leagues are the only competition u can base your judgement on.
in europe barca and real always get the spotlight obviously, and the gap between the top 2 and the rest of the league may bring u to deceptive conclusions... but the truth is la liga's midclass teams are not inferior to epl's midclass teams.... and if we were to compare the low-class teams of both leagues (the relegation contenders) la liga's teams are honestly stronger than their british counterparts.
of course that's just my opinion, and u might well disagree with it, as i don't have any empirical facts to back up my opinion........ but certainly champions league matches results are not an empirical evidence either.
as for la liga not producing great players outside madrid and barca, that is absolutely wrong mate. betis, bilbao, sevilla, atletico have some of the most important academies in europe (on par with some french and italian top notch academies).... of course sometimes some very promising prospects are captured by top clubs, but that happens everywhere (also in england and in italy). some of the most important chelsea and man utd players come from other english clubs (ferdinand, lampard, rooney, just to mention a few).
besides it's not true that spanish midclass clubs never hold their great players. marcos senna has been one of the greatests metodistas of the last decade and he's spent most of his carreer in villareal (where he still plays); and what about cazorla or capdevila (both playing for spain national team)... they're still playing for villareal. in villareal u will find one of the best strikers in the entire league (rossi). marchena was spain starting cb until pique developed a few years ago... and he's always remained in villareal.
and that was just villareal. what about valencia. yeah, they sold villa, but mata and banega are both top club material.
and what about sevilla (rakitic, jesus navas, renato, perotti, capel) or atletico madrid (koke, aguero, forlan) or atletico bilbao (llorente and iraola).
no mate, la liga is much more than barca and real. the league is filled with many fantastic teams, with some great football players, playing some absolutely sweet football.
and finally, as for the gap between the top 2 and the rest of the league, that won't tell u how competitive a league is. that will only tell u how competitive
the race title is. u wanna measure the competitiveness of the entire league? then u have to look at the
differential of the whole league. take the last 4 seasons and measure
the points gap between the first and the last team. that will tell u how competitive the league is. the result might surprise u
last season: epl 58 points; la liga 65 points
2 seasons ago: epl 61 pts; liga 54 pts
3 seasons ago: epl 76 pts; liga 59 pts
4 seasons ago: epl 61 pts; liga 48 pts
so, except last season, in the last 4 years la liga always had a shorter gap between the top and the bottom of the table. that's pretty significant

i'm not tryng to say la liga is a stronger league than epl here, mind u. what i'm trying to say is that la liga certainly is not inferior to the epl. and that spanish midclass teams are much better than u seem to believe.
