Italian Football - Dark Days Continue

Article by Daniel Pisani

At the start of this year I was fairly optimistic of the chances of Italian teams doing well in Europe, but this year has just displayed to me that for some unknown reason European success falls as a low priority.

You would think that a couple of years ago when Italy lost 1 of their 4 Champions League spots to the German Bundesliga that the league and clubs would react and show face, but no it has got worst.

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Overnight Juventus and Napoli bowed out of the UEFA Champions League and now find themselves in the Europa League where they will join Fiorentina & Lazio. It's a real shame that Italian Football has come to this, because as mentioned I did not see this coming at all.

The league is fairly tight with the exception of Juventus and AS Roma, who are slowly drifting away, but the battle for the 3rd UCL spot is up for grabs with Napoli, Inter Milan, Fiorentina and believe it or not Hellas Verona. The fact that the side coming 9th will be the only Italian team featuring in the later stages of the Champions League is a real disgrace on the Italian game.

Now don't get me wrong, as a Juve supporter I hate seeing AC, Inter or Napoli doing well within the Serie A, but when they are playing in Europe it's a totally different story. So I put it to you this way, if an Italian side does not win the Europa League this year then the Serie A doesn't even deserve 3 spots in the Champions League.

Napoli were very unlucky, featuring in the group of death alongside Arsenal and last years finalists in Borussia Dortmund and collecting 12 points which would have easily seen them through if they were in any other group. They needed a win of 3 goals or more but unfortunately only managed to beat the Gunners 2-0.

Juve on the other hand have once again failed to show any sign of improvement following a stella run in last years edition of the Champions League. Now any Juve fan would blame the conditions of the Istanbul ice rink but as the saying goes, Galatasaray also had to endure those same conditions. The Old Lady only needed a draw, That's all. But they actually tried to play football on an unplayable pitch and to their credit the Turkish side had a better game plan. Pump it long to Drogba and worry about the scraps around the opposing penalty box. Juve have only themselves to blame dropping points in Copenhagen and at home against Galatasaray. As a Juve fan myself I expect them to react in only one way and that is that the Europa League is now priority alongside a treble of Serie A crowns and also to win the Coppa Italia. The fans deserve it after a pathetic Champions League campaign.

AC Milan, well I don't know how to justify this one. At the start I gave Celtic massive hope but wow did that go down the drain as they were very ordinary. Ajax gave the group a scare after they beat Barcelona in Amsterdam and gave the final match at the San Siro some real meaning. AC who won't and a I repeat WON'T qualify for any European competition based on their domestic performance, better make the UCL high priority for 2014. They are 9 points behind the 5th and last place for Europa League and a huge 14 points behind the last UCL spot. All up they are 21 points behind the Serie A leaders in Juventus and let's face it, we have all seen miracles before but this year we wont see one from them. Reasons why?

Juve are too far in front.
AS Roma, who sit 2nd, don't have any European Football to worry about.
Napoli have a better head to head vs the Rossoneri.
Inter Milan also don't have any European Football to worry about.
Fiorentina have a decent lead on them plus they beat AC 2-0 in Milan so their head to head is also better.
Hellas Verona don't have Coppa Italia or Europe to worry about, just Serie A and they are already up due to the fact they beat AC Milan 2-1 on the opening day.

All in all I feel as though I should just look toward next year. The national side will once again have to come and defend the Serie A like it had done in 2006. After the match fixing scandal the Azzurri defied all odds and won the World Cup. Also, after Serie A kept being voted out of the top 3 leagues in the world, the national side made the Euro 2012 final only to lose to the Spanish side who come from a 3 team league.

I'll always have Serie A down as the best league in the world due to the beautifully tactical element that comes with it but I'm getting sick of defending it if the team who represent us in Europe keep failing.

Till next time guys - I'd love some feedback.

Ciao

Daniel Joseph Pisani #23