Italian clubs on brink of historic CL embarrassment
BBC Online :
Italian football stands on the brink of a Champions League (CL) “debacle” – with the prospect of no Serie A clubs competing in this season’s last 16.
Since the reintroduction of the last-16 knockout round to Europe’s showpiece competition in 2003-04, there has always been at least one Italian representative – on 12 occasions in the past 22 years, there have been three.
In fact, not since 1987-88, when Napoli went out in the first round of the European Cup to Real Madrid, has no Serie A club made the last 16 of the competition – or first knockout round when it took other formats.
But Inter Milan’s shock play-off exit to Norwegian debutants Bodo/Glimt on Tuesday means either Juventus or Atalanta will have to overcome first-leg deficits to keep that run going.
Juventus trail Galatasaray 5-2 heading into a return meeting in Turin, while Atalanta are 2-0 down on aggregate before Wednesday’s home leg with Borussia Dortmund.
Inter – finalists last season – lost 2-1 at San Siro against Bodo, having suffered a 3-1 defeat in the first leg.
It is the first time the Milan giants have been knocked out of the Champions League by a team from outside Europe’s top five leagues, those from England, Spain, Germany, Italy and France.
“This is a big wake up for Italian football,” said Italian football journalist Daniele Verri.
“Juventus will need to win 4-0 and Atalanta need to win 3-0. [For them all to go out] would be a complete debacle, a disaster for our clubs.
“Tonight Ronaldo and Christian Vieri were guests at San Siro, and this is a symbolic clash with what has been and what is.”
Inter signed Ronaldo and Vieri for world-record fees in the late 1990s, when Serie A was the envy of world football, blessed with the game’s most talented stars.
AC Milan then beat Juventus to win the Champions League in 2003, losing to Liverpool on penalties in the final two years later, before defeating the Reds to become European champions again in 2007.
While there have been more recent successes in Europe’s other competitions – Atalanta won the Europa League in 2024, Roma won the Conference League in 2021 – Jose Mourinho’s Inter were the last Italian side to win the Champions League in 2010.
Inter’s European exit comes despite being 10 points clear of rivals AC Milan in Serie A and a further four ahead of defending champions Napoli, who failed to make it out of the Champions League’s league phase.
“It is a piece of history,” said journalist Vincenzo Credendino. “Speaking about Italy and Inter, this is one of the worst pieces.
