Unfairly maligned or calcio in crisis? Atalanta's success shouldn't distract from the failings of Italy's top teams in the Champions League

The symbolism of Christian Vieri and Ronaldo turning up to watch Inter get knocked out of the Champions League by Bodo/Glimt wasn't lost on anyone. The Nerazzurri may be the strongest side in Serie A right now, but Italian football is no longer producing world-class strikers like the former Azzurri ace or signing superstars like 'Il Fenomeno'.  

As Thierry Henry quipped in the CBS Sports studio before kick-off, "They could do with both of you tonight!" Ronaldo responded, "We could maybe play five minutes!" Inter fans probably would have taken him up on that offer!

More than 70,000 of them - almost double the population of Bodo - had arrived at San Siro hoping to see their side prove that the plastic pitch was the problem in last week's shocking 3-1 first-leg loss. They instead witnessed a Norwegian team put on a show at 'La Scala del Calcio' for the second time in three months that made a complete mockery of Italian football. 

Juventus legend Alessandro Del Piero joked about being on the verge of tears before the play-off round second legs, given all three Italian teams were trailing on aggregate, and the nation's reigning champions, Napoli, had failed to even get out of the league phase. However, the Juventus legend did argue that "not everything is as bad as it seems". And he had a point. At least in the case of Atalanta, who really shouldn't be cast in anything like the same negative light as Inter, Juve or Napoli.

"This is a match that will go down in history, not just here in Bergamo for all the Atalanta fans, but for Italian football as a whole,” coach Raffaelle Palladino told Sky Sport Italia. "I heard a lot of comments about Italian football and I think it ought to be protected, above all from the inside. We are too harsh when things don’t go well, we need more constructive criticism, to be a bit more positive, and we proved that this evening."

Atalanta, though, are something of a rarity in Italy: a wonderfully well-run club renowned for its ability to both identify and develop young players before later selling them at an enormous profit - while at same time remaining competitive in Serie A and Europe. Indeed, La Dea's dismantling of Xabi Alonso's seemingly unbeatable Bayer Leverkusen in the final of the 2024 Europa League was the culmination of an ambitious, long-term project rooted in the economic reality of modern football that provided the perfect template for other Serie A sides to follow.

However, while Bologna and a very well-funded Como are also now showing what's possible with a clear, coherent strategy, Italy's top teams are nowhere near as shrewd, stable - or even successful.

Napoli have won the Scudetto twice in the past three years and yet the club is still waiting for a first-ever appearance in the semi-finals of the European Cup. Antonio Conte complained constantly about injuries and a hectic schedule throughout this season's continental campaign, but the reigning champions of Italy won just two of their eight games in the league phase and were effectively eliminated because of their inability to beat a Copenhagen side forced to play with 10 men for just under an hour.

Meanwhile, Conte's counterpart at Juventus, Luciano Spalletti, was left lamenting the schizophrenic nature of his side after their desperately disappointing play-off defeat by Galatasaray. The Bianconeri capitulated in the first leg but were immense in the second, meaning the coach was proud of his players' performance on the night but bitterly frustrated by the fact that they had failed to get past a team they clearly should have beaten.

The cold, hard truth, though, is that Juventus are no longer the force they once were under Massimiliano Allegri. Indeed, the 2015 and 2017 finalists have now lost their last five knockout stage ties in the Champions League, which feels a lot like "football heritage"...

As the Italian press were also quick to flag, there was an alarming difference in depth between Juve and Gala. Whereas the Turkish champions were in the enviable position of being able to leave Mauro Icardi on the bench in Istanbul with Victor Osimhen starting up top, Spalletti felt he had no better option to lead the line than former Leeds United midfielder Weston McKennie - and Jonathan David's performance in the second leg showed way

At the end of the day, neither Napoli nor Juventus proved anywhere near well enough to reach the last 16 - but the fact that Inter didn't either was what really reflected horribly on the strength of Serie A.

The Nerazzurri made two Champions League finals in three seasons under former coach Simone Inzaghi, so it was undeniably shocking to see them beaten home and away by Bodo/Glimt. After all, we're talking about a team that's presently 10 points clear at the summit of Serie A.

However, while praising the up-and-coming Como project that he literally has a stake in, Henry repeated his claim that Inter are "top of the league by default"; the best of a bad bunch, essentially.

"At the moment, the Italian teams are where they're meant to be - unfortunately," the World Cup winner said on CBS. "When you hear Bodo/Glimt beat Inter, you're kind of like, 'Oh, what a surprise!' But when you watch the game, there's no surprise.

"One team played with the right attitude. The other played in a lethargic manner with not a lot of intensity."

The very same accusation was levelled at Inter by both Fabio Capello and Zvonomir Boban on Sky Sport Italia on Tuesday night, with both men of the belief that the slower pace of Serie A is now being ruthlessly exploited by Champions League opponents. And we're not just talking about Europe's elite here.

While it was possible to have some degree of sympathy for an ageing Inter side dismantled by treble-winning Paris Saint-Germain in last season's final, there was, as the Gazzetta dello Sport put it, "No excuse!" for the runaway league leaders being outplayed by Bodo/Glimt.

There are, of course, some explanations for the sad state of affairs Italian football now finds itself in.

As Del Piero pointed out on CBS, nothing happens in a vacuum. Serie A having just one team in the last 16 "is result of what's been happening in Italy in the past few years, where the level of investment has lowered and other markets have become much, much bigger than us.

"There are many problems. For starters, the stadiums. We all know about the level of the stadiums, so we need to perform much better off the pitch in that regard.

"Then, the youth system. Dortmund played in the first leg with two Italian guys born in 2008. Excuse me! What's going on? Why don't we have them? Why are they playing at Dortmund? So, there's something missing in several different areas."

The big question now, then, is whether anything will be done about it. Because we've been here before in Italy. There was a massive inquest after the national team failed to qualify for a second consecutive World Cup back in 2021. 

"We're reaping what we sowed," coaching legend Arrigo Sacchi told the Gazzetta at the time. "We talk a lot, but you don't resolve problems with only words." Scant little action has been taken in the interim, though. 

It remains incredibly difficult for even massive clubs like Inter, AC Milan, Napoli and Roma to build new homes for themselves, meaning they're being denied an incredibly important source of revenue that would allow them to bridge the financial gap to Europe's richest teams.

"We have the ugliest stadiums in Europe and this affects revenues and TV rights, because an ugly and empty stadium is not sold on TV," former AC Milan vice-president and current Monza CEO Adriano Galliani told Calcio e Finanza. "And we did not build the stadiums because bureaucracy held everyone back, because the authorities, for a long time, were asking for the construction of the athletics track. There are always a thousand obstacles."

Del Piero's point about the youth system is also very valid, with Capello incessantly insisting that Italy is paying the price for ditching its footballing identity more than a decade ago.

"Let me say we’ve taken the worst part of Guardiol-ism," the former AC Milan coach told the Gazzetta after Italy were humiliated by Norway in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. "Our midfielders never turn towards the opponents’ goal, while others constantly look forward and execute at a speed we can only dream of.

"In academies, kids are told to follow tactics, keep possession, and back-pass to the goalkeeper, instead of being encouraged to develop quality and creativity. Where do you think we’re going like that?" Maybe not even to North America this summer.

Italy could yet qualify for a first World Cup since 2010 via next month's play-offs, but there's a dearth of talent in the squad that coach Gennaro Gattuso attributes to the fact that only 32 percent of the players in Serie A are eligible to play for the Azzurri. And that's not because of the presence of world-class talent at the top teams.

As former Netherlands international Jan Mulder once pointed out, "Serie A is where celebrities go in their twilight these days." Luka Modric's role in AC Milan's revival this season has done nothing to challenge that damaging perception; on the contrary, it's only reinforced it.

Paolo Di Canio, though, is more upset by the fact that Donyell Malen was compared to the legendary Gianluca Vialli after making an immediate impact at Roma after joining from Aston Villa during the January transfer window.

"He [Malen] is 27, and nobody ever paid attention to him," the former West Ham attacker told Sky. "At Aston Villa, he was a back-up for [Morgan] Rogers and [Ollie] Watkins, who are stronger. He gets here and scores five goals in five matches, and we are dragging Vialli into this? My big brother, a kiss to heaven, I’m sorry they mentioned you!

"Our view of Italian football is that we are still phenomenal. But this season, many thought Napoli would have gone far in the Champions League, but then they conceded six goals against a team (PSV) that collected three points against them and then five in the other seven matches. Inter conceded five goals in the Champions League final against PSG, but it could have been 10. So, don't even compare Serie A to the Premier League, which is on a different level."

There's certainly no disputing that latter claim. While the Premier League will have six teams in the last 16 of the Champions League, Italy will have just one - and, rather tellingly, it's the best-run club in the country. 

The hope must be, then, that Atalanta's success doesn't distract attention away from the failings of others. Lessons need to be learned because the situation in Serie A is serious. Calcio is in crisis. The top teams are not in good financial health and unless drastic action is taken this time, Costacurta & Co. will be back in the Sky Sport Studio this time next year - or maybe even after the World Cup play-offs - mourning the death of Italian football.