Leeds United and maybe Arsenal will have a chance to challenge Italy's domination of the UEFA Cup when the tournament resumes in March. Leeds will play Roma in the fourth round and Arsenal could meet Parma, the holders, in the quarter-finals if they manage to defeat Deportivo La Coruna.
In Arsenal's case there is much to prove following two successive Champions League flops. While they have easily made the switch to the UEFA Cup, beating Nantes 6-3 on aggregate in the third round, Highbury's disappointment at failing to reach the second group phase of the Champions League still rankles.
Two successive defeats at Wembley, 4-2 against Barcelona and 1-0 against Fiorentina, ended their hopes of improving on last season's fiasco.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger believes his team have yet to acquire a tradition of success in Europe and while George Graham's side did win the Cup Winners' Cup in 1994, beating Parma 1-0 in the final, the club's only other success came in the Fairs Cup in 1970.
Deportivo will be a useful yardstick against which to measure Arsenal's European standing next spring. In the second round of the UEFA Cup they easily beat Montpellier, struggling in the French League, 5-1 on aggregate and in the third they eased their way past Panathinaikos 5-3.
"It is one of the toughest draws we could have - and I am only talking about Deportivo at this stage," said Wenger. "They are 10 points clear of Barcelona in Spain and have some excellent players, but it is a challenge that we don't mind."
With the first leg at Highbury Arsenal may rely on their more consistent away form in Europe to take them to the quarter-finals. If they succeed their opponents will be Parma or Werder Bremen.
For the moment David O'Leary's young Leeds United side will not be looking much beyond the fourth round. Roma knocked them out in the second round last season, winning 1-0 in the Stadio Olimpico and then easily forcing a scoreless draw at Elland Road despite having a man sent off. In the third round this season they eliminated Newcastle United in a similar fashion, 1-0 at home, 0-0 away.
While Arsenal, with so much experienced international talent to call upon, have so far failed to punch their weight in Europe under Wenger, O'Leary's players have shown early signs of being able to learn quickly from what for them is a novel experience.
Beating a stylish Spartak Moscow team on an away goal despite the accompanying furore over the frozen pitch in Russia and subsequent switch to Sofia, where they lost the first leg 2-1, said much about the character of the side O'Leary is developing.
This is something Roma coach Fabio Capello is obviously aware of: "There were two teams I wanted to avoid - Leeds and Celta Vigo, and we've gone and got one of them. It doesn't mean that we'll start out feeling like we've already lost, but it does mean we'll have to play it very carefully indeed," said Capello.
Roma, again at home in the first leg, will test Leeds's mettle in other ways. Spartak's attack played a pure passing game which must have seemed strange to some of O'Leary's less worldly-wise players. Meeting Roma will hardly be a novel experience but Leeds will still need to be alive to the nuances of Italian football if they are to survive.
If Leeds beat Roma they will meet another Italian side, Udinese, or Slavia Prague in the quarter-finals. Juventus, the fourth Serie A side in the UEFA Cup, have to overcome Celta Vigo for a quarter-final against Atletico Madrid or Lens.
Since Napoli brought the UEFA Cup back to Italy in 1989 only one final has failed to feature at least one Italian team. That was in 1996 when Bayern Munich beat Bordeaux.
