The Champions drama that Italy wants to end

Something is questioning the historic prestige of Italian football and Italy is living with anxiety. What was at first a concern turned into misery for the transalpine football elite with the inexorable passage of time and constant disappointment: no Italian team has lifted the Champions League since 2010. If football is no memory, it still doesn’t remember from that far away. ‘Orejona’ praising the radical ‘catenaccio’ of Mourinho’s Inter Milan who used Eto’o as a winger in the semi-finals against Barça and sent Bayern Munich with that Diego Milito double at the end (2-0) .

The Italian teams open this Champions League starting tomorrow, knowing that this long abstinence is something transalpine football cannot afford. The glorious past, with 7 Champions for Milan, 3 for Inter and 2 for Juve -or the recent precedent of Italy’s victory in the 2010 European Championship-, does not hide the grievance of being the only country among those great league that accumulates more than a decade without reigning in Europe.

Spain has Real Madrid as the current champion, in Germany Bayern won the title in 2020 and, in England, Liverpool’s 2019 Champions League is still fresh. Only France broke Italy’s drought as one of the big leagues, although it cannot be placed in the French The teams equal to the Spanish, English, Italian and German, as the first, last and only European Cup for a French team dropped the title Olympique de Marseille in 1993, waiting to lose the flower of PSG.

However, the most painful thing for the country of the boot is that Italy has completely ignored the fight for the continental title in the last five years, as the transalpine teams have chained two editions without reaching the quarterfinals – the last one the Atalanta in 2020-, and they have not appeared in the semifinals since 2018 with Roma thanks to the famous goal of Manolas against Barça that crowned the spirit of Romanista and the nonsense of Barça with 3-0 after 4-1 first leg.

In a period that coincided with the stagnation of Inter -a decade until last year without entering the round of 16-, and the long decline of Milan -seven years without entering the Champions League until last year-, Juventus only survived. the Italian honor in the finals of 2015 and 2017, losing against Barça and Real Madrid. Part of the criticism accused Italy of its outdated conservatism in the game, although the success of Roberto Mancini’s cheerful and offensive ‘azzurra’ at the Euros was the confirmation of the ‘new’ Italy without losing the spirit of the ‘old’. The ‘catenaccio’ is in their blood and they will always know how to bring it out when needed.

A strong Italy in this Champions

But Italy senses its chance to regain its lost cache. You want to see the Italian teams, especially Stefano Pioli’s resurgent Milan, who are eager to be a man again in Europe after being a man again in Italy last year by recapturing the ‘Scudetto’ after 11 year.

The ‘Rossonero’ team, tired of what it is in a competition where they are the most successful after Real Madrid, wants to return to the leading continental competition and Rafael Leao is surrounded by the arrivals of the great De Ketelaere and the lively Origi despite Kessie’s departure. Colista last year in a group with Liverpool, Atlético and Porto, must go to the round of 16 in a league it shares with Chelsea, Dinamo Zagreb and Salzburg, its rivals this Tuesday.

Inter’s awakening will be conditioned by his participation in the group of death with Barça, Bayern -where he made his debut-, and Viktoria Plzen in an affordable role but, despite the context, Lukaku’s return strengthens the This ‘neroazzurri’ team includes Lautaros, Dzeko, Barella and Brozovic. Simone Inzaghi’s men, were knocked out in the round of 16 last year by Liverpool and their ability to challenge the greats is now in doubt with recent defeats against Lazio (3-1) and Inter (3-2) .

And many expectations are also generated by this happy Napoli of Luciano Spalletti in his return to the top continental competition and where the illusion is developing, shown by a budding star like Kvaratskhelia who debuted in the Champions League and the new ones like of Raspadori, Gio Simeone and Kim Min-Jae as a counterweight to the marches of Insigne, Mertens and Koulibaly. Not an easy group with Liverpool, Ajax and Rangers but an exciting debut this Tuesday against the ‘reds’ in Diego Armando Maradona.

And all the uncertainty at Juventus. The coach, Massimiliano Allegri, and the team that has maintained the popularity of Italian football in the Champions League in this fatal decade have accumulated disappointments in the last two years, succumbing in the round of 16 against Porto and Villarreal and their current state is questionable , sixth in the Series after two wins and three draws while the team hides from the plague of its injuries -Di María, Chiesa, Pogba, Szczesny…-, to explain the flaw in its game, especially to generate static.

The farewell of Chiellini, De Ligt and Dybala cannot be the reason for the arrival of Di María, Pogba, Bremer, Kostic, Milik, etc. In his group, the difficulty of PSG -which he will open this Tuesday-, the trap of Benfica and Maccabi Haifa as the friendliest opponents.

Italy featured again at club level in Europe last year thanks to Jose Mourinho, who should be the one to bring the European title at club level back to the needy Italian showcases with the Rome Conference League 12 years after the Champions League with the Inter. But Italy aspires to the maximum. Another pulling of the ears of ‘Orejona’ cannot be allowed.