Out of the reckoning

The three Serie A teams still playing in the Champions League Round of 16 this season, Inter, Milan and Roma, fared badly in the first legs, all losing at home and now seriously risk elimination leaving the country without representatives in the quarter-finals for the first time since 2001.

So far, this has been a bad season for Italian teams in Europe. Following Napoli’s 1-2 upset to Villarreal last week, no teams from the Serie A are still involved in the Europa League either as this competition has now reached its Round of 16 as well.

This time last year, Inter had just taken off to an imperious march towards a memorable treble and that included their first European Cup in 45 years. However, this term the Euro campaign is proving to be one of the most frustrating ever for Italian clubs... at least up to now.

Sampdoria were the first team to fall by the wayside in the Champions League as they were knocked out by Werder Bremen in the third qualifying round.

Samp, along with Juventus and Palermo, also failed to make it to the knock-out stages of the Europa League. Napoli’s elimination last week implied that Italy’s most recent conquest in the rebranded UEFA Cup remains Parma’s 3-0 success over Marseille in 1999.

Between 1989 and 1999, there were eight Italian successes in the UEFA Cup. These were achieved by Napoli (1989), Juventus (1990 and 1993), Inter (1991, 1994 and 1998), Parma (1995 and 1999). That run included four all-Italian finals (1990, 1991, 1995 and 1998).

Last week, Inter were floored by a last-gasp Mario Gomez goal for Bayern Munich. Although the Germans were the better side at the San Siro, Inter, too, had their moments and could have gone in front had Esteban Cambiasso scored from close range in the second half.

But nothing is lost yet as Inter have enough quality to hit back and oust Bayern even though this is going to be a tough task for Leo-nardo and his boys to achieve.

Like a typical Bundesliga side, Bayern do not play dazzling football but look solid all-round with a strong attacking prowess capable of unlocking any defence.

Inter have been leaking goals in almost every game though and that, perhaps, makes Bayern favourites to reach the quarter-finals.

Roma’s 2-3 reverse to Shakhtar Donetsk leaves them with a mammoth task to qualify. Whereas identical 2-1 wins will be enough for Inter and Milan to go through, the same cannot be said of Roma. The team from the capital needs to win by at least two clear goals in Ukraine.

Shakhtar were in devastating form at the Olimpico while Roma were all over the place. One augurs that with the change of coach – Vincenzo Montella on for Claudio Ranieri – things will improve.

This season, Roma have shown that they are good enough to beat top opponents in the shape of Inter, Milan and Juventus.

Though being a quality team, Mircea Lucescu’s Shakhtar are not ranked among the elite in Europe.

Meanwhile, much more was expected of Milan particularly due to their pedigree on the continent.

Tottenham Hotspur proved to be no pushovers at the San Siro though.

Although qualification is still within the Rossoneri’s reach, the north Londoners are in pole position to qualify thanks to that solitary Peter Crouch goal.

Milan can always rely on their experience in this competition but to succeed at White Hart Lane, they need to forget all about the first leg and lay focus solely on their bid to overturn the first-leg result and proceed to the next round.

Serie A statistics

1st defeat for Genoa after a four-match positive run (two wins and two draws) as Davide Ballardini’s side forfeited a first-half lead to suffer their third straight defeat at Catania’s Angelo Massimino Stadium. For Diego Simeone’s Catania this was their second home win in a row, following their 3-2 success against Lecce. Parma extended their winless run to six games (three draws and three defeats) as they came from two goals down to share the spoils with Roma. This was Parma’s first positive result at the Olympic Stadium since a goalless draw in April 2000. Parma’s only win in the capital dates back to April 1997 (1-0).

2nd consecutive defeat (following their 0-2 reverse against Lecce) for crisis-hit Juventus, who were floored by Bologna at their own Olympic Stadium in Turin. This was Bologna’s first win at Juve since October 1980 (1-0). The upset was also Juve’s fourth home defeat, after their debacles to Palermo (1-3), Parma (1-4) and Udinese (1-2). Cesena, meanwhile, revived their slim chances of staying up with a last-gasp home win over Chievo. This was Cesena’s first win after a nine-match winless streak (four draws and five defeats).

3rd straight defeat for Palermo, who were annihilated by in-form Udinese 7-0 at their own Renzo Barbera Stadium. Incidentally, the Friulani’s previous triumph in Sicily, in March 2005, was a similar emphatic win – 5-1. Fifth-placed Udinese are undefeated in their last 10 outings (seven wins and three draws). On Monday, Palermo sacked coached Delio Rossi and replaced him with the flamboyant Serse Cosmi. Rossi thus became the 10th coaching casualty of the season. Lazio were floored by Cagliari at the Sant’Elia Stadium for the first time since February 2008 (1-0). This was Lazio’s first defeat after a five-match positive run (three wins and two draws).

4 years had to pass for Inter to return to winning ways at Sampdoria’s Luigi Ferraris Stadium as the reigning champions scored twice after the break to record their third straight victory and overall their seventh away win of the season. For Samp this was their fourth home reverse. Milan consolidated their leadership courtesy of a convincing 3-0 home win against Napoli. Milan have now extended their positive streak to 10 games (six wins – the last three in a row – and four draws).

6 players – Domenico Criscito, Antonio Floro Flores (both Genoa), Massimo Paci (Parma), Matteo Darmian, Armin Bacinovic (both Palermo) and Blazej Augustyn (Catania) – received their marching orders last weekend. Davide Ballardini (Genoa) became the latest coach to be ordered off his bench. Genoa’s Miguel Veloso was the only player to miss a penalty last weekend after his spot-kick was saved by Catania’s Mariano Andujar. Elsewhere, Luis Jimenez (Cesena), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Milan), Francesco Totti (Roma) and Antonio Di Natale (Udinese) were all on target from the penalty spot.

29 goals were scored on the 27th day: 12 coming from the hosts and the re-maining 17 from the visitors, who managed three wins. There were 13 first-half goals while foreigners contributed with 14 strikes. Total number of goals scored so far is 652. Antonio Di Natale (Udinese) grab-bed a hat-trick that enabled him to topple Napoli’s Edinson Cavani in the top scorers’ sheet with 21 goals. Di Natale’s strike partner, Alexis Sanchez, went one goal further as he notched a poker. Marco Di Vaio (Bologna) and Amauri (Parma) scored a brace each. Lazio’s Andre Dias committed the only own goal of the day.