Italy bumble forward, clubs stumble, Inter dominate

ROME (AFP) – It has not been a great footballing year in Italy despite the world champions’ qualification for next year’s World Cup in South Africa.
In fact, probably the greatest Italian successes have been by expats.
Fabio Capello has turned England into genuine World Cup contenders and Giovanni Trapattoni took a hotch-potch Ireland team to the brink of the finals.
Carlo Ancelotti started his Chelsea career in excellent fashion and even unheralded pair Andrea Barzagli and Cristian Zaccardo helped VfL Wolfsburg win a first ever German title.
But back home, Italian football has been stagnating.
Italy did qualify for the World Cup but were far from impressive in doing so, despite winning their group.
They really had little in terms of comeptition with a Bulgaria team over-reliant on the inconsistent Dimitar Berbatov and an Ireland that can’t put out a team made up entirely of Premier League players.
Italy struggled to beat the likes of Cyprus and Georgia, although they did manage to do the double over both, and needed a last gasp equaliser in Dublin to secure their progress.
Their Confederations Cup campaign was an embarrassment with a 1-0 defeat to Egypt and a 3-0 thrashing at Brazil’s hands ensuring they did not even make it past the group stage.
This last year also saw Italian clubs record their worst ever performance in the Champions League since the European Cup was changed to allow non-champions into the competition.
Fiorentina didn’t even make it out of their group while Inter Milan, Juventus and AS Roma all crashed out in the second round — all to English opposition.
Not one Italian team in the quarter-finals was a first in Champions League history.
And they fared worse in the UEFA Cup as even AC Milan could not go very far, losing to Werder Bremen on away goals in the last 32, the same round that saw Sampdoria and Fiorentina exit to leave no Italian teams involved in Europe beyond the beginning of March.
So to domestic matters and it was a successful entry into Italian football for the self-styled ‘Special One’ Jose Mourinho.
Taking over from the sacked Roberto Mancini — for whom three straight Serie A titles proved inadequate — he made it four in a row for Inter but his failure to get the team beyond the second round in Europe saw him under pressure right from the off in his second season.