Italians In Europe

With the knock out stages starting today for the highly anticipated champions league, there are many questions swirling around every team with many fans worried. From England, to Spain, to France, everyone has their questions and concerns, but none more then the Italians. With the recent success of other nations and the lack of success from Italy, calico is really being put to the test this year in Europe. How will we fair? Is Italian soccer really inferior to the other nations and major clubs? Can we earn back that coveted fourth CL spot?

With huge games in the upcoming weeks, we will soon find out the answers to these questions and more. Over the years, Italian soccer has been able to provide the world with great teams as well as great matches in Europe. Inter being the latest club to win the coveted cup a few years back., it is a little hard to believe that the country is in the spot that it is. Well believe it or not, they are. Over the years Italy has been able to get numerous teams into the champions league but have always been cut short on a roller coaster ride. They will go for a stretch of years as dominant clubs in the tournament, even winning them a couple of times, i.e. 2010, ‘07, ‘03. They even made the final in ’05 only to lose it to Liverpool in one of the most dramatic games in the tournaments history. But take away the wins and the teams that made it that far, where does that leave the other clubs? This question is one that has come back to haunt the country as of today.

Italy was able to have the top four teams in the Sere A go on to the CL and compete. Due to the fact teams like A.C. Milan have not been able to get past the first knock out stage in recent years as well as other Italian clubs not even making past the group stages, that fourth coveted European spot was taken away and now given to Germany. The constant poor play has caused this to happen and in a time of the game where all but one Italian team do not own their own stadium, hence have a much smaller advantage in money that can be spent on the club, lose out on millions that could be earned for Italian clubs. And even while being faced this year, it could soon be washed away due to the play this year in Europe by Italy’s finest.

Inter Milan, Napoli, A.C. Milan and Udinese were the four teams that made it into Europe, but Udinese were knocked out before making it to the group stage. This had a lot of the fans scared for the future of Italian soccer and with the group stage drawing, it didn’t get any better. Napoli was placed into the group of death with England’s Manchester City, Germany’s Bayern Munich and Spain’s Villarreal. Yet even with the deck stacked against them, they make it through with the German’s. As well as Napoli, both Milan teams have made it through, but only Inter having won the group. This lead to the current state of the CL and the hope of millions.

Between all the countries that are left in the CL, Italy is the only one with three teams left. Everyone has less and to the naked eye, this is a huge advantage but this is a very important round. What they can do from here on out is what really matters. Can an injury riddled Milan beat a slumping Arsenal? Can Internazionale beat a team from France, a country that in the past have given Italian teams problems? And can the slumping Napoli take advantage of a Chelsea team on the decline? Each game has their own back story and all just as important as the next. Where will Italy stand by the middle of March? One can only hope that they are actually still standing.