Champions League: Power ranking the 8 quarter-final teams
3. Real Madrid
Speaking of the top three, it is the next three clubs that have dominated the European landscape over the past few seasons. It looks as though this season will be the same, and the big three do indeed top this list. Splitting these great sides is like splitting hairs, but in the name of power rankings, I will endeavor to split them nonetheless.
Real Madrid perhaps, on paper, have the best collection of players. However, what is so crucial is that they are a collection of great players, and they play like one. Rather than the neatly collated teams of Barcelona and Bayern Munich, Madrid feels like the result of a mad shopping spree without a list. While players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema and so on are fantastic players, but they do not necessarily make a fantastic team.
Madrid can score goals with the best of them, that comes naturally with Ronaldo in the starting XI, but they are susceptible defensively and lack a true defensive shield in front of the back four. Sergio Ramos is vastly overrated and with Zinedine Zidane now at the helm, there seems a lack of tactical philosophy at the club. This is not to say that Madrid are a bad side, in fact they are far from it. But when compared to the very top clubs in the world, they do not quite have the tactical resoluteness to hold up.
Next: 2. Bayern Munich