This season’s Champions League has not been a good one for Italian football. Ahead of this week’s action, there were serious doubts surrounding all four clubs from the boot-shaped peninsula.
With some poor first-leg showings, it was looking like it would be the first time that an Italian side would fail to feature in the RO16 stage of the competition. Since the reintroduction of the last-16 knockout round in 2003-04, there has always been at least one Italian representative. Even worse for this current crop, on 12 occasions in the last 22 years, there have been three.
So, with relief restored with Atalanta’s magical comeback against Borussia Dortmund, let’s at least look at a consolation… Here’s each of the Italian team’s revenue from the tournament, which can hopefully be reinvested to better effect next season.
Antonio Conte’s Napoli stuttered to a League Phase exit, with mediocrity at the fore in their results column. An opening night 2-0 defeat away to Manchester City set a relatively dour tone, although the Partenopei worked hard following Giovanni Di Lorenzo’s early dismissal.
Faith was somewhat restored with a 2-1 dispatch of Sporting at the Maradona, yet this felt like a flash in the pan as an inspired PSV powered on to a 6-2 thrashing at the Philips Stadion.
A return to port between late November and early December did restore a sense of normality, as Conte’s troops rallied to a 2-0 victory over Qarabag, but then slumped to a 0-0 draw with Eintracht Frankfurt.
The latter’s uncertainty seeped into a point from two games between Lisbon and Copenhagen, before a 3-2 home loss against Chelsea saw the Azzurri crash out with a meagre 30th place finish in the total standings.
Glimmers of promise mixed with inconsistencies across the park lead many in Campania to think ahead to next season (both in the Scudetto race and Europe). There, they will incorporate €47.22 million to their efforts.
Faring somewhat better than their southern Serie A rivals, Juventus still had a chaotic League Phase themselves. Their first two outings at home to Borussia Dortmund and away at Villarreal ended level and with zero goal difference, despite hitting the back of the net six times.
After falling to a closely-fought 1-0 defeat at the Santiago Bernabeu, Igor Tudor’s draw-happy group saw a 1-1 stalemate at home to Sporting in the Croatian’s final time at the continental helm. Luciano Spalletti took over, and just about squeezed past the head-turning Bodo/Glimt 3-2 away, thanks to Jonathan David rescuing the win in the 91st minute.
Spalletti’s new manager bounce continued with consecutive 2-0 home victories over Benfica and Pafos, and pretty much settled playoff qualification ahead of a bleak 0-0 draw at Monaco. Things certainly heated up in the next stage, though.
Galatasaray’s boisterous Rams Park played host to the Bianconeri, coming out the worst of an end-to-end 5-2 drubbing. Noa Lang starred with a double, keeping the strained ex-Napoli link alive. That familiar club connection won’t have been lost on Spalletti in the second leg.
Victor Osimhen hit the first of a two-punch knockout in the second half of extra time to snuff out a valiant Juve comeback attempt and end the tie 5-7 in Gala’s favour.
Deflated, yet fixed back on the top four trail in Serie A, the team from Turin can ready themselves with €62.19 million.
Inter’s Champions League campaign got started in ideal fashion, with Cristian Chivu’s team looking quietly confident of pushing themselves back to another final.
Their near-faultless first four games against Ajax, Slavia Prague, Union Saint-Gilloise, and Kairat Almaty saw the Nerazzurri tuck away 11 goals with just one in response. However, when the big boys arrived in the fixture list, momentum was lost.
A difficult trifecta of fixtures between late November and mid-January saw no points acquired. First, Atletico Madrid settled a 2-1 score right at the death at the Metropolitano thanks to Jose Maria Gimenez. Late drama continued against Liverpool at the Giuseppe Meazza too, as a Dominik Szoboszlai penalty flattened spirits in the 88th minute.
After this, Arsenal ran away from Milan with a 3-1 win to continue a perfect first seven games, leading to questions towards the well-respected former defender in the Inter dugout.
Chivu restored the faith that he’d been bestowed during his first Serie A term taming and leading Il Biscione (the Big Grass Snake) to the league summit. His side battled past Dortmund to settle a late 2-0 away win in Germany. Composure, however, was ultimately missing against tournament wildcards Bodo/Glimt, with Inter becoming yet another famous footnote in football history.
Adding to the Scandinavians’ impressive scalp collection, including Manchester City and Atletico Madrid, they were stunned 3-1 on the astro turf in the Arctic Circle, before the yellow Gleam blinded San Siro to see the aggregate score settle at 5-2.
Of course, now is the perfect time to be critical of the Serie A leaders, yet we’ll leave the internal enquiry to that of the Italian media and the club, as they end the European season with €69.77 million.
The Bergamo outfit began poorly with a 4-0 thrashing at the hands of PSG in Paris, yet grappled back some control with some steady showings. In the subsequent fixtures, a measly 0-0 draw with Slavia Prague, a 3-2 home defeat against Athletic Bilbao, and a 1-0 away defeat to USG punctuated some pretty impressive performances.
First, Gli Orobici edged out Club Brugge 2-1 at home, and Marseille 1-0 away. They then continued positive form on their travels with an imposing 3-0 performance in Frankfurt. Ahead of the losses to Bilbao and USG, another 2-1 win, this time against Chelsea, turned heads in England.
However, with the first leg of the play-offs, it seemed that the consecutive defeats had stopped La Dea in her stride as Dortmund prevailed 2-0 with a solid first-half showing at the Westfalenstadion.
Cue a truly frenetic second leg. Gianluca Scamacca took just five minutes to hint at Raffaele Palladino’s determined outlook at the New Balance Arena. Then, Davide Zappacosta levelled the tie on aggregate just before the interval with a deflected effort from range.
Ahead of the hour, Mario Pasalic’s header from an inch-perfect Marten de Roon cross brought further euphoria, but Karim Adeyemi quickly halted this with an immediate impact from the bench approaching the final 15 minutes.
The closing stages provided this clash with the frenzied crescendo it deserved as Atalanta kept pushing for the winner. Gregor Kobel struggled to get the ball clear of his box, and a secondary cross over the keeper had Ramy Bensebaini hooking his leg up.
The Algerian inadvertently caught the determined Nikola Krstovic, and the VAR helped referee Jose Maria Sanchez Martinez point to the spot, dismissing both Bensebaini and angry substitute Nico Schlotterbeck in the decision’s wake.
So, Atalanta keep the Italian spirit alive in the last 16 and will enjoy a bonus of €70.4 million for next term. Their next opponent will be decided in the knockout draw on Friday (tomorrow) at 11:00 GMT.
