With Inter, AC Milan and Napoli in the Champions League quarter-finals, Italy have three representatives at this stage for the first time since 2006.
The decor is flashy, the cast prestigious. In a theater in Reggio Emilia, world champions Fabio Cannavaro and Luca Toni, accompanied by ex-coach Fabio Capello, pose jovially for a promotional spot. The operation, named “calcio is back” (“football is back”), has something to delight them. It highlights the radiant spring of Italian football, with six representatives still involved in the European Cup: Inter (which faces Benfica on Tuesday April 11), AC Milan and Napoli in the Champions League, Roma and Juventus in the Europa League and Fiorentina in the Europa League Conference.
Three Serie A clubs in the C1 quarters, this had not happened since the 2005-06 season (Juventus, Inter, AC Milan). The draw having also placed the three formations in the same part of the table (including a Milan-Naples in the quarterfinals), there will be at least one transalpine team in the semi-finals – a first since 2017-18. Should we see in this a simple combination of circumstances or the fruits of a spectacular collective rebirth?
At first sight, the balance sheet is idyllic and recalls the heyday of the soccerin the 1990s and 2000s. “Italian football is coming back to the fore, it’s stimulating for everyone!”jubilant Urbano Cairo, president of Torino, on March 21 for The Sports Gazette. On closer inspection, the caliber of the opponents faced by the Italians in the round of 16 nevertheless tends to temper the scope of the performance.
A lenient draw in the round of 16
Napoli, untouchable leader of Serie A, swept away an Eintracht Frankfurt (2-0, 3-0) too fair for this level. Milan provided the minimum service against Tottenham (1-0, 0-0), then coached by Antonio Conte with a contrasting European history. As for Inter, it curled the correctional against a generally harmless Porto (1-0, 0-0) and was saved by its amounts in the return match. Would the success rate have been similar if the draw had been less lenient with the Italian formations?
It is doubtful, as they have suffered martyrdom against teams of better reputation in hens. The Nerazzurri did not exist against Bayern (0-2, 0-2), just like the Rossoneri against Chelsea (0-3, 0-2). Worse, Juventus lost their duels against Paris (1-2 twice) and Benfica (3-4, 1-2) and were eliminated through the back door in the first round.
In fact, these calamitous results of the fall somewhat temper the impression of good health. Especially since, on the national scene, AC Milan and Inter are floundering and, if they have both beaten Napoli, neither manages to keep up with their frantic pace. “Italian football is at a low level, good Premier League players are seen as phenomena”thus launched Ivan Juric, the coach of Torino, last September.
Meanwhile, the selection is floundering
In the same vein, the Marseille coach Igor Tudor, notably passed by Hellas Verona, recently compared, in The team (article reserved for subscribers)the overall level of Serie A and Ligue 1: “Three or four teams (…) may have more quality in Italy, compared to their French equivalents. But from 6th place to last, it’s stronger here.”
During the last gathering of the Squadra Azzurra, the national coach Roberto Mancini did not go there by four paths. “I would not speak of a renaissance of Italian football”he bitterly asked, before developing: “out of the three teams, there are only 7 or 8 starting Italian players”.
This temporary upturn should not hide the deep crisis of transalpine football deprived of the World Cup for the second consecutive time. While Inter, Milan and Naples are carried by foreign players, Mancini is reduced to calling Simone Pafundi, a bambino who has only nine minutes of Serie A with Udinese. He had barely been born during the Italian clubs’ last successful campaign in the Champions League in 2006.
