English
Español
“Cruelty and miracles, it’s the Champions League,” read the headline in Gazzetta dello Sport. “But we’re among Europe’s greats.” Just. And if the definition of great is a loose one, Italy had grounds to be grateful for play-off drama in Bergamo. Not for the last time, they will hope, given that the Azzurri face Northern Ireland there next month, seeking to preserve their World Cup hopes.
A great footballing nation’s Champions League campaign almost ended in February. Instead, Atalanta performed their feat of escapology, losing the first leg 2-0 to Borussia Dortmund, winning the second 4-1, courtesy of Lazar Samardzic’s 98th-minute penalty.
Juventus narrowly failed in theirs: demolished 5-2 in Istanbul last week, they were reduced to 10 men in Turin, beat Galatasaray 3-0 in regulation time and conceded in the 105th and 119th minutes. The miracle and then, three hours later, the cruelty.
A day before, there had been the ignominy. “Inter, the Champions League ends in disgrace,” was Gazzetta’s take after Bodo/Glimt’s triumph at the San Siro; as has been noted, Bodo’s population would fit in the San Siro, with thousands of empty seats. Inter Milan, 10 points clear at the top of Serie A, were beaten home and away by a team who finished second in the most recent Norwegian Eliteserien. At least when their European campaign ended last season, it was because Paris Saint-Germain scored five. Now, over 180 minutes against them, Bodo/Glimt did.
The miracle in Bergamo at least ensured that, as has been the case every season since 1987-88, Serie A will be represented in the last 16 of the European Cup. Then Diego Maradona’s Napoli exited early to Real Madrid, a prompt for the creation of the Champions League. Now Italy has suffered from a shift in format.
Over two seasons, five Italian teams have perished in the knockout play-off round. The most damning element lies in their conquerors. Atalanta eliminated Dortmund, 2024 finalists, the club ranked 10th in the Uefa coefficients. Yet none of the five victors comes from Europe’s five biggest leagues. Last year, AC Milan went out to Feyenoord, Juventus to PSV Eindhoven, Atalanta to Brugge. Now Bodo/Glimt and Galatasaray emulated them.
Relative to resources, it is underachievement on a huge scale. It is obvious Serie A lacks the glamour it once had, that there is more money in England. But comparisons to the Premier League are missing the point when Dutch, Belgian and Norwegian clubs are disposing of Italy’s finest.
Galatasaray are at least a different case: the tax-free salaries that attract foreigners to Turkey mean they picked off the striker who was the best in Serie A and Victor Osimhen scored the pivotal goal on Wednesday. Now, surely, Juve could not afford him. The biggest signing in Serie A last summer was Christopher Nkunku, for AC Milan, at just €37m.
Juventus are counting the cost of past mistakes in the market, whether the colossal drain on their resources Cristiano Ronaldo proved when they eyed continental domination or the compendium of errors in 2024-25. They sold Dean Huijsen as they funded the arrival of Douglas Luiz, now out on his second loan spell. As Huijsen flourished for Bournemouth, earning a profitable sale to Real Madrid, they moved in January for Lloyd Kelly, available on a free from Bournemouth a few months earlier, on a loan that led to a €17.5m move.
And over two legs against Galatasaray, Kelly had something of a shocker: giving a goal away in the first, sent off in the second. It may be unfair to note he plays in a position where Juventus used to have Gaetano Scirea and Claudio Gentile, Ciro Ferrara and Fabio Cannavaro, Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini; it nevertheless underlines this Juventus team is lesser than their predecessors.
Nor was Kelly the lone culprit. Juan Cabal was sent off in Istanbul, while Luciano Spalletti’s disastrous decision to bring him on for the booked Andrea Cambiaso backfired. The tie was really lost in the second half at Rams Park, as Galatasaray scored four times.
For Inter, a four-minute spell in the Arctic Circle, when Bodo/Glimt scored twice, represented the turning point. Inter sometimes turn their age into an asset but they started with players who are 36, 37 and 38 years old in Norway and there are occasions when opponents just looked sharper. Perhaps the way Kjetil Knutsen’s side picked them off on the counter-attack at the San Siro reflected badly on Cristian Chivu: set to equal his predecessor Simone Inzaghi’s total of one Scudetto, the Romanian may be inferior at navigating his way through two-legged ties.
And Inzaghi may have camouflaged Serie A’s decline. Italy had one team in the last 16 last season, none in the last eight the previous year. But Inzaghi’s Inter knocked out Bayern Munich and Barcelona last spring and reached a second final in three seasons. No other Italian club has progressed that far since Juventus in 2017. Serie A’s longest gap between a European Cup win was between 1969 and 1985; next season, the time since Inter’s 2010 triumph will be greater.
Italian clubs still stand second in the Uefa coefficient over five years, but that owes much to a combination of Inter, a wider excellence in 2022-23 and points picked up in the Europa and Conference Leagues by Atalanta, Roma and Fiorentina. But this season’s struggles mean it is almost certain Serie A will not get a fifth Champions League spot for 2026-27; that might be bad news for Juventus, currently fifth.
Amid the inquests into Inter and Juventus this week, however, it should not be forgotten that Italy’s greatest failure in continental competition were not in action this midweek. Napoli are Italy’s reigning champions. They contrived to finish 30th in the Champions League group stage, below Pafos, Bodo/Glimt, Qarabag and two Belgian clubs.
They lost 6-2 to PSV. They drew 1-1 with 10-man FC Copenhagen. They allowed Eintracht Frankfurt their only clean sheet and only away point. Injuries are a mitigating factor for Napoli but they faced the clubs who finished in 22nd, 24th, 28th, 31st and 33rd. Theirs was a generous fixture list. They squandered it. Antonio Conte’s European record is increasingly awful. He specialises in Serie A.
So it is the outsiders from Atalanta, the club who started the season managed by Southampton failure Ivan Juric, who are left to carry the Tricolore into the last 16. Probably no further, as they face Arsenal or Bayern next. But for the aristocracy of Italian football, the big-city clubs and the historic powers, it is a story of cruelty and disgrace.