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Italian clubs on brink of historic Champions League embarrassmentImage source, EPAImage caption, Inter were the last Italian team to win the Champions League, in 2010ByAlex BysouthBBC Sport Senior JournalistPublished24 February 202627 Comments
Italian football stands on the brink of a Champions League “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, there has been at least one Italian side in the last 16 of the competition – or first knockout round when it took other formats – every year since 1987-88, when Napoli went out in the first round of the European Cup to Real Madrid.
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,” mentioned 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.”
Image source, Getty ImagesFormer Inter strikers Ronaldo and Christian Vieri were special guests at San Siro on Tuesday
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,” mentioned journalist Vincenzo Credendino. “Speaking about Italy and Inter, this is one of the worst pieces.
“Inter are the best in Italy, but maybe it is time to think not about what can happen in one or two years, but about 10 or 15 years – and on that side we can see generally Italian football is not on the same level of top European leagues.”
The national team must also win through a play-off in March to avoid missing out on a third successive World Cup this summer, having last lifted the trophy in 2006.
“It is a difficult time for Italian football and this shows it,” added European football expert Julien Laurens on BBC Radio 5 Live.
“Today, Inter Milan put pressure on but it was not enough from them. They have been the best team in Italy for the last few years. And Napoli as well, they haven’t even come close.
“It’s terrible for Italian football at the moment.”
Inter won five of their opening eight league phase games in Europe to finish 10th, with Juventus 13th and Atalanta 15th.
Yet in the play-offs, all have come unstuck against sides who finished lower in the table but play a more intense brand of football.
“What does it say about Italian football? That something needs to be changed,” added Verri.
“The level of Italian football is poor. It is a structural issue. We play very slow football. You can ask any manager in Italy and they will all say the same.
“I was talking to Claudio Ranieri the other day and he mentioned: ‘Look, when I was in England at Leicester… people don’t train more than in Italy. They just do it with another intensity, and then they keep up that intensity during the games.’
“We play slow, and in Europe you suffer.”
While Inter boast a much more expensively assembled squad on far bigger wages than Bodo, who had nine Norwegians in their starting XI at San Siro, Verri says Italian clubs are seeing their best players move abroad.
Last season’s Serie A top goalscorer Mateo Retegui left for Al-Qadsiah in Saudi Arabia, for example, while former team-mate Ademola Lookman joined Atletico Madrid and Tijjani Reijnders left AC Milan for Manchester City.
While the majority of Italy’s national squad still play in the country, stars such as Gianluigi Donnarumma, Riccardo Calafiori, Sandro Tonali and Retegui are elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Laurens believes Serie A clubs are no longer producing good enough youngsters.
“Sporting CP, Club Brugge and Bodo have similarities in their success this season. Their scouting is great and their academies perform well,” he explained.
“The academies in Italy are not producing enough players or players who are fit to play in their first team. The way they spend their money is not what we are used to from Italian clubs.”
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