Spain's main claim: the best in Europe and better than Brazil

"We've got the best league in Europe,'' ran the headline in the Barcelona sports paper El Mundo Deportivo. As it happened, they were merely bragging about basketball, but so far as the locals, and for that matter the rest of Spain, are concerned it could apply to football too. The form of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia in midweek Champions' League outings had supporters and media alike exulting.

"Better than Brazil,'' claimed the Madrid sports daily Marca, after Real's six-goal dismemberment of the Belgian club Genk. "It was pure samba.''

It was, in fact, pure genius, and the only people not to get excited were the commentators on the Spanish channel TVE1. Their matter-of-fact tone never changes, whether goals are raining in as they were on Wednesday, or whether the match is dull. Perhaps they should be enclosed for a while in a small space with Jonathan Pearce or John Motson to master the art of decibel manipulation.

Meticulous research by your correspondent in the watering holes of L'Escala, a Catalonian fishing port at the northern end of the Costa Brava, failed to find any support for the oft-repeated claim in England that the Premiership is Europe's most attractive nowadays.

''The Spanish league is best because our clubs have won everything," claimed Robert Figueras, a children's football coach. "And in my opinion Italy is also better than England. They are only the third best league."

Perched on a stool alongside Figueras in the Bar El Pelly was Josep Pujol, a heavyweight youngster who admits to the perilous pastime of being an avowed Real Madrid fan deep in the heart of Barcelona territory. "The English matches make good viewing, or at least the highlights do,'' said Pujol, "because they are played hard and at top speed.''

That opinion gains English endorsement from John Baron, a Geordie expatriate. "The Spanish play better, more attractive football,'' he said, "though some of them are a bit like ballet dancers. The English league is just fast and direct.''

Neither league receives the endorsement of Gerson Ramos, a Brazilian whose restaurant, El Cargoll, is decked out in his nation's World Cup-winning colours of green and yellow. "I like very much to watch the African national teams,'' he said. "They have good technique, they are strong, they are quick. English football is ping-ping, goal or no goal. Africa is the best one.''

Despite bearing the same name as one of his nation's footballing heroes, Gerson declines to make much of who won the World Cup, apart from his restaurant decor. He also declines to be impressed by Barcelona. "I prefer to see Athletic Bilbao,'' he said. "Because their team is all Basque, all local people. But these days we don't see football any more, we see 22 millionaires running after the ball. Now it is newspapers and TV making the stars. I preferred football in the Seventies and Eighties and luckily I can get Eurosport, so I am able to watch games from 20 years ago."

As for another Brazilian, the one who goes by the name Ronaldo, the Madrid media are inclining towards the dismissive. "Ronaldo, don't be in a hurry,'' advised the sporting daily As above a picture of Real's players celebrating one of the goals which gutted Genk. As far as that publication is concerned, the team are doing well enough without the man who has managed only 30 minutes' football, and that in a friendly for Brazil, since the World Cup final.

Genk may not have provided the most spirited opposition Real are likely to encounter this season, but the manner of execution indicated it will be a mighty club indeed who loosen their grip on the Champions' League.

The hope in Catalonia, inextinguish-able as an Olympic flame, is that Barcelona will be the ones to diddle Real. And after the indifferent season they suffered under the managership of the well-meaning but anonymous Carlos Rexach, Barça have come out of the blocks impressively since Louis van Gaal embarked on his second spell as coach. Four consecutive victories have ensured his resurrection as the darling of the city's print and television folk.

"Van Gaal has a system and has built a team,'' wrote the Mundo Deportivo columnist Santi Nolla. It is early days for such declarations, as Van Gaal himself is only too aware. In the clamour which greeted Barça's 2-0 win over Galatasary in Turkey, the Dutchman was careful to stress: "I didn't expect such an easy triumph''.

Having occupied it once before, he knows the temperature of the Nou Camp seat. At least Spanish football shares with its English cousin the truth that you are only as good as your last result. But with Patrick Kluivert at his sharpest for a long time and Luis Enrique excelling in the dual role of captain fantastic and scorer, Van Gaal's side will not be easy to bring down.

Old Trafford will host the Champions' League final next May and, whatever the English beliefs that United and Arsenal will contest that game, you will find nobody here prepared to consider any other finalists than Barça and Real. Except perhaps Valencia.