Drogba eyes new golden era for English clubs in Europe

LONDON, Mar 7 (Reuters) Striker Didier Drogba believes English clubs are on the verge of another golden era in European football after his Chelsea side and Liverpool reached the Champions League quarter-finals.

Chelsea came from a goal down to beat Porto 2-1 at Stamford Bridge yesterday for a 3-2 aggregate, while Liverpool lost 1-0 at home to Barcelona but still knocked out the holders on the away goals rule after a 2-2 draw over the two legs.

Arsenal, who trail PSV Eindhoven 1-0, and Manchester United, who lead Lille 1-0 in their knockout round tie, could give the Premier League an unprecedented four clubs in the last eight by the final whistle of today's games.

While other countries have enjoyed success in Europe in recent years, Drogba told reporters: ''England have got two clubs already qualified for the quarter-finals... now it's perhaps England's turn.

The Ivorian added: ''At one stage, the Spanish championship was really on top in Europe, then three years ago the French clubs started to come through a bit when Marseille reached the UEFA Cup final and Monaco were in the Champions League final.

''Then, at other times, it's been the Italian clubs. These are cycles -- and that's all the better for the English league and for us. I hope we'll see it right through to the end.'' Drogba, a member of the Marseille side who lost that UEFA Cup final to Valencia, has been a key figure in Chelsea's season on the domestic and European fronts, scoring 29 goals.

If he is correct, English football is set to enjoy at least a flavour of the dominance it had before their clubs were banned for five years after the 1985 Heysel Stadium disaster.

Before the tragedy, English clubs had won seven of the eight European Cup finals from 1977 to 1984.

They have won only two since their return to continental competition and the launch of the Champions League, Liverpool in 2005 and United in 1999, though Arsenal let slip a 1-0 lead in the final 15 minutes of last season's final with Barcelona.

FINANCIAL KING The Premier League is already the game's financial king, richly funded by multi-billion pound TV rights deals and investors such as Chelsea's billionaire owner Roman Abramovich.

Chelsea, who lost to Monaco in the 2004 semi-finals, are in a particularly good position to exploit that financial muscle, and they will only take the positives out of a gutsy but fairly scrappy win over Porto.

Trailing to Ricardo Quaresma's 15th minute strike, they levelled through Dutchman Arjen Robben's hit-and-hope shot in the 48th minute and won it with a fine late volley from Germany captain Michael Ballack.

The match was also turned around by Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho, manager of Porto's Champions League-winning side in 2004. He used all his motivational skills at halftime and tactical nous in the second half to defeat his old club.

''It wasn't an easy situation to deal with,'' said Drogba, whose side were also a goal down before beating Arsenal 2-1 in a torrid League Cup final less than two weeks ago.

''But we dug deep and found the strength to win and to get through to the next round.

''Maybe we didn't play well, but to win a cup game you don't really need to play well.'' REUTERS PDS KP1849