The 2012/13 season has seen a complete contrast for Italian clubs in European competitions. Serie A clubs came into the new season having lost a Champions League place to Germany following a succession of bad performances in Europe. 2007 was the year of the last big performance by an Italian side as Milan got revenge in Athens and beat Rafa Benitez’s Liverpool 2-1 to lift the Champions League for the seventh time.
This season saw champions Juventus, runners up Milan and third placed Udinese qualify for the Champions League. However, Udinese lost on penalties to Sporting Braga leaving just two qualifiers for the group stages of the competition. The three qualifiers for the Europa League were Lazio, Inter and Napoli, and all three came safely through the group stages to face tricky ties in the last thirty-two this week.
Milan came though a potentially tricky Group C as runners-up behind winners Malaga. They just pipped Zenit St Petersburg to runners-up by a point with Belgian champions Anderlecht finishing bottom. Juventus came through a much trickier Group E finishing as winners with Shakhtar Donetsk as runners-up and defending champions Chelsea in third place and Danish champions Nordsjaelland bottom.
In the Europa League, Napoli came through Group F as runners-up with Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk as winners, PSV Eindhoven in third and Swedish side AIK bottom of the group. Inter finished as runners-up to Rubin Kazan in Group H with Partizan Belgrade in third and Ajerbaijan side Neftchi Baku finishing bottom. Lazio on the other hand finished top in a potentially difficult Group J with Tottenham Hotspur runners-up, Greek side Panathinaikos third and Slovenians Maribor bottom.
The last sixteen of the Champions League threw up some intriguing ties for the two Italian clubs. Milan were paired with 2011 winners and favourites for the competition Barcelona. Three months ago, it would have been nigh on impossible to imagine the San Siro outfit giving Barcelona any kind of challenge. However, Milan’s performances over the past month to six weeks has seen them move from mid-table to fifth place and just three points away from a Champions League position. The aquisition of Manchester City’s Italian international striker Mario Balotelli has further strengthened their cause, although he is cup-tied and therefore unavailable for Champions League ties.
Juventus were paired with Scottish champions Celtic who had finished impressively as runners-up in a group which had contained Barcelona, Benfica and Spartak Moscow. The first leg was played at Parkhead this week and although the Scottish side put up a brave performance, Juve won 3-0 which gives them the added bonus of three away goals and virtually seals their place in the quarter-finals.
The last thirty-two of the Europa League kicks-off this week with Inter hosting Romanian side CRF Cluj, Lazio travelling to Germany to face Borussia Monchengladbach and Napoli hosting Czech side Viktoria Pluzen. The draw for the last sixteen of this competition was made at the same time with Inter set to place the winners of Tottenham and French club Lyon if they are successful. Lazio will face either Stuttgart or Belgian side Genk if they make it and Napoli facing either Belarussian side BATE Borisov or Turkish club Fenerbache.
The fact that out of six clubs that started the season in European competiton, there are still five remaining as the competitions go into their knock-out stages can only be a good thing for Italian football as it strives over the next couple of seasons to win back it’s extra Champions League place.Who knows there could even be an Italian double in Europe this season. After all, stranger things have happened.
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