No Italian club will be in the quarterfinals of the European Champions League for the second year in a row. The Juventus disaster, defeated 3-0 at home by Villarreal on Wednesday, opens the debate in Italy, the champion country of the last European National Championship.
“A colossal failure a few days before the repechage for the Qatar World Cup: Italy champions Europe, internationally, is reduced to almost zero”, was alarmed the Corriere dello Sport, very upset that he had to “follow on television” the rest of the 2021-2022 Champions League, no longer with Serie A clubs.
Once again, Roberto Mancini's Nazionale will have to try to lift the spirits of the 'tifosi', but for that it must get the ticket to the World Cup. He will first have to beat North Macedonia on Thursday next week in the semifinals of the repechage and then he would have to beat Portugal or Turkey on Tuesday the 29th in an eventual final.
Only one Azzurra player, Jorginho (Chelsea), is qualified for the Champions League quarterfinals. In the rest of the internationals, disappointment with their clubs is the general note, as is the case with Gianluigi Donnarumma and Marco Verratti (PSG) or Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus) and Nicolo Barella (Inter Milan).
Inter were eliminated by Liverpool, planting battle (1-0 victory on the second leg, after falling 2-0 in the first leg), but Juventus crashed against Villarreal with that setback in Turin 3-0, after the 1-1 achieved in the first match in Spain.
- Confirmed decline -
Massimiliano Allegri, a specialist in Champions League (two finals, in 2015 and 2017, with Juventus), received a real lesson from Unai Emery, Villarreal's strategist. He failed to do better than Maurizio Sarri and Andrea Pirlo, who were also defeated with 'Vecchia Signora' in the round of 16 in the last two years.
The fiasco of the Italian clubs in this Champions League confirms the decline of a country that is increasingly far away from its 'Golden Age'.
Italy is still one of the countries with four places in the Champions League, but in the last four years it has sent only two clubs to the quarterfinals (Juventus in 2019, Atalanta in 2020).
A quarter-finalist rate (12.5%) much lower than the other countries that also have four places for the highest European tournament: England 68%, Spain 41%, Germany 30%. Even behind France (25%), which has three places for the Champions League.
- Discussion on the style of play -
Villarreal coach Unai Emery tried to reassure Italian journalists by stating that 'Calcio' maintained “a high level, like Spanish, German and English football”.
But former AC Milan coach Arrigo Sacchi, champion of two European titles (1989, 1990), the problem lies in the lack of ambition.
“We Italians always believe that we are the saviors of the homeland. But to think that a single player can beat only eleven opponents doesn't make sense. The game is what makes the difference”, he stressed this Thursday on the pages of La Gazzetta dello Sport.
The criticism undoubtedly goes mainly to Juventus, which relied too much on Wednesday on the talent of its Serbian attacker Dusan Vlahovic, as it did with Cristiano Ronaldo in the past.
Atalanta and AC Milan were more ambitious in the game in the group stage, but without luck.
Italy will have to wait until the 2022-2023 season to try to regain the throne of the European clubs, something it has not achieved since Inter Milan lifted the 'Orejona' in 2010.
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