Until at least 2019-2020 or even beyond, Italy’s dreams of receiving a 4th Champions League berth are over.
It’s a harsh reality, Serie A was at one point on the cusp of taking away the coveted spot in the UEFA Rankings away from the English Premier League, a feat which surely would have sparked a wave of optimism around Italy, but alas it’s not meant to be.
Serie A clubs had an opportunity to do something great this year in Europe, coming off the back of last year’s roaring return to being contenders in both the Champions League and Europa League, but even from the get-go, there were problems with this season’s campaign.
After Juventus bowed out of the competition, English newspaper ‘The Guardian’ confirmed the dreaded news for Italian fans, England would retain the 4th place spot.
In the beginning, Sampdoria were shockingly ousted from the Europa League in a defeat to Vojvodina. After last season’s incredible run by Samp, this failure set the tone for an awful season domestically and for Serie A in Europe.
It’s another reminder of how smaller clubs have badly damaged Serie A’s co-efficient status. A few years ago, Udinese did a lot of damage by qualifying for a few consecutive campaigns but failing to progress deep into tournament play.
What would help Italian teams is to have all the big teams line up for the European competitions, perhaps we will get that for 2016/17.
From then on out, Italian teams successfully qualified for the knockout stages of both European competitions, however luck was not on anybody’s side as all five Italian teams we’re given tough draws.
Napoli bid adieu to the Europa League in the Round of 32 against Villarreal – a defeat which proved very costly for the co-efficient as well as Fiorentina’s early exit.
The Viola crashed out against Tottenham, however Lazio successfully managed to surpass Galatasaray but was absolutely crushed by relative minnows Sparta Praha 3-0 at home. A complete and total embarrassment for Italian football.
On the Champions League front, it doesn’t get better.
Roma was paired with Real Madrid and went out at the Round of 16, Juventus nearly surpassed Bayern Munich, but a heartbreaking last minute goal snatched away their dreams of pulling off the ‘Miracle in Munich’.
That’s how we got to ground zero, where for the first time in 15 years, there are no Italian teams in the quarterfinals for either European competition, while England has 2.
The odds were never in Italy’s favor with the tough match-ups, and for the latest matchups and free bets visit BestFreeBets.ie.
Italy must improve in the future, for there to even be a future for Italian football.
The post Italy foul out: Goodbye to the fourth Champions League spot appeared first on IFD.
from IFD http://ift.tt/1TUrDZ2
via IFTTT berita selengkapnya Follow @jadwalliga
