Lehman Brothers 2 Inter Milan 0

So, England 3 Italy 0. Or should I say the Premier League 3 Serie A 0. The UK press is full of that British Bulldog spirit, we're the greatest, Mourinho go home, four clubs in the last eight of the champions and all that. Three clubs in the last four last year. The Italian sporting press instead is engaging in navel gazing, self-analysis and trying to figure out what went wrong.

Yesterday's Guardian said 'United's special ones in different class', the Daily Mail 'No Way, Jose', as 'stylish United brush off the special one'. La Gazzetta Della Sport instead gave lavish praise to the English teams. In his article, Arrigo Sacchi, former Milan and Italy manager, refused to believe that luck had been against Inter, Juventus and Roma in their games against Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal respectively. He said that the English teams didn't just owe their success to money, but to "the civility, general knowledge and fair play of the British people which is on a different level to ours". Arrigo's obviously never beenout on a Saturday night in Barnsley then. He concluded that the gap between top English and top Italian clubs was now 'enormous'.

Having watched the three games between Italian and English teams this week, I disagree with both Sacchi and 'The Guardian'. United weren't in a different class to Inter on Wednesday night. They took their chances whilst Inter missed theirs. Mourinho's team totally dominated the twenty minutes before half time and created scoring chances at will. Juventus also came close to beating Chelsea during a spirited performance in Turin and if Mirco Vucinic hadn't made a hash of his effort during the penalty shoot out, my favourite Italian team Roma would have probably sent my father's beloved Arsenal out of the competition.

However, the Italian press is certainly being sporting in its praise of the 'superior' English teams, which considering that the country are reigning World Champions must count as a remarkable demonstration of humility. I think Roberto De Ponti's article in La Correire Della Sera probably gives the best analysis. He identifies three factors in the success of the English teams: Money, debts and long-term planning.

He underlines the incredible balance sheets of last year's two Champions League finalists, Manchester United and Chelsea. United are 770 million Euros (about 700 million pounds) in debt, whilst Chelsea owe creditors a staggering 935 million Euros. They are the two most indebted clubs in Europe. De Ponti likened these debts to cheating, calling them 'Financial Doping'. The number of trophies won by the wo clubs in recent years does seem to suggest that access to credit is giving them an unfair advantage.

Would it be entirely a surprise if one or both of these clubs found themselves in severe financial difficulties in the near future? Who knows, maybe United will be nationalised like the Northern Rock bank!! 'We can't allow a priceless national asset like them. a multinational company, go to the wall!' the politicians will say, as taxpayers complain that their hard earned money is being used to help Cristian Ronaldo pay for repairs to his Ferrari.

Well, as a England fan I'd like to think that even if United and Chelsea go to the wall, at least our English players are gaining priceless experience of playing at the top level which can only help us to mount a real challenge for the World Cup in South Africa next year. Unfortunately, the facts don't give me any grounds for optimism in the chances for my 'Three Lions'. Analysing the teams playing in the last sixteen of the Champions League, there were 21 Italian players on display, 27 Brazilians, 27 Spaniards and guess how many Englishmen? Only 9.

So my message to Manchester United and Chelsea fans is this-enjoy the success while it lasts and maybe, just maybe you'll get to renew your rivalry with Leeds United before too long. And if you're an England fan, hope against hope that Aston Villa develop their present team of largely English players into the strongest in Europe over the next 12 months.

Buenos Aires Zoological Gardens

Before I visited the zoo here in BA I was expecting the worst, such as animals kept in tiny, dirty cages without being exercised or stimulated at all. However, the gardens are a great surprise because the animals have large, well maintained compounds and the visitors are kept at a reasonable distance. Well done to the city council who initiated the zoo here in the 1880s and run it right up to the present day. Sophia found all of the elephants, tigers, lions and monkeys highly boring but loved the free ball-on-a-stick toy that she got with our ice creams!

Hey Osvaldo, Don't Get Me Wrong....

Ok, here's a challenge for all of you intelligent, free thinkers. I'll give a prize to the best answer and put it in the blog.

The other day we were strolling through a park near the Costanera Sur nature reserve. There were plenty of interesting street entertainers, couples dancing the salsa, traditional folk musicians, teenagers breakdancing, stalls preparing street food and an antiques market. Full of people from the city's less well-to-do areas. Good fun was being had by all.

At a certain point a lone musician in the distance caught my eye. He was a south american indian, tall, with long black hair and dressed in a traditional costume. He was standing at a microphone playing the panpipes. He had a considerable crowd gathered around him.

Now I started to like listining to the pan pipes many years ago when I lived in Exeter in the UK. There were a group of Peruvians who regularly appeared in the High Street on Saturday afternoons and attracted quite a crowd, playing mysterious and exotic tunes from the Andes. A little bit of South America in an otherwise dull and boring weekend in Devon.

I reckon almost every High Street in the UK has had its pan pipe players in recent years. I've also seen them on the Via Dei Fori Imperiali in Rome outside of Caesar's Temple.

So I hot footed it towards my tall, dark haired, traditionally dressed pan pipe player from the Andes. Finally, after all these years I'd be able to hear a pan pipe player here in his home continent, South America. Surely he'd be even better than those musicians who came to the UK, in the same way that Italian food is miles better in Italy than it is in other countries, and German beer is best of all when drunk in Germany.

I arrived within earshot of the musician and couldn't believe what I heard. He wasn't playing an exotic mysterious melody from the Andes. Instead, the unmistakable notes of Hey Jude filled the air and judging from their reaction, the massed crowd couldn't get enough. For good measure he followed with Chicatita by Abba. The crowd were now becoming hysterical in their enthusiasm. At least that song has a Spanish name, I thought. But that was enough for me-I was on my way to the next stall.

So here's your challenge, intelligent free thinkers. When it comes to pan pipes and pan pipers you get exotic south american melodies in Exeter High Street but Hey Jude when you're in South America.

Why?