Milan's and Ibra's Timely Triumph

Milan's Zlatan Ibrahimović roars at and through the competition

Palermo 0-4 Milan.  It was the kind of game that you wouldn't really expect after a week of acrimony and apologies that reminded us how fragile the diplomatic equilibrium is in Serie A between Italy's two biggest clubs, Juventus and Milan.

Sulley Ali Muntari's goal that was not given--sorry, that was taken away after being given--last weekend against Juventus urged Milan's no. 2 Adriano Galliani to leave the San Siro because of high blood pressure.  Not before, however, him making sure that his precarious systolic and diastolic balance was upset completely.

"Look what happens when you cry," he is reported to have said to Juventus coach Antonio Conte in the tunnel. "It clearly works."

"What a pulpit--you people are the mafia of football," was Conte's response.

Galliani was referring to Juventus's sustained self-victimization before the game last weekend, which everyone is guilty of is in Serie A at one point or the other. Conte was referring to the perceived influence Milan have had in Italian football, the kind of influence that Juventus have also had, and the kind that Juventus have exerted shamefully in the past (Calciopoli and all that).  The notorious, erstwhile duopoly of Italian football arguing over injustices is not a very edifying moment, and not a moment that the Catanias and the Chievos should have any time for.

Comically, the 1-1 draw last weekend, during which Milan outplayed Juventus for most of the time, sobered Conte.  After realizing how undeserved the draw was (even considering Alessandro Matri's goal that was perhaps disallowed correctly), the Juventus coach spoke of a need for sensibility all around when talking about officiating.  It was a bit like being lectured on safe environmental practices by a suit at British Petroleum.

However, mainly for the better of public appearances, Galliani and Juventus president Andrea Agnelli made up over the phone.

Against such a backdrop, Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri deemed the trip to Palermo yesterday as being critical to the season.  It was a game that would show what Milan are made of.  The sense of injustice in the Milan camp was feverish--and poor Palermo were incinerated.

I haven't seen Milan play that kind of football since 2005.  Palermo were marginalized to the point of being spectators.  The Milan defence and midfield got to every ball first, and Robinho and Zlatan Ibrahimović did the rest.  Ibra's hat-trick in the space of fourteen devastating minutes underlined Milan's rage and the Swede's centrality to this Rossoneri side.  Really, it seems pathological to deny how vital Ibra is to this team, and there are many out there who think he is a liability due to his disciplinary problems.  But surely he more than makes up for it, and perhaps we can see the time he spends suspended as well-deserved rest.

Returning after serving a harsh three-match ban, Ibrahimović  went to work, dismantling Palermo.  The hat-trick came from both feet, and was a display of precision and understated power.  He was unplayable, unstoppable, and unforgiving.

"I still think about that Juventus game," he said after the match.  Clearly.  Like a Bollywood hero driven by revenge and a soundtrack, Ibra smashed his way through Palermo, flaying pink flamingos at the Renzo Barbera, which is not the happiest hunting ground for Milan.

Chievo celebrate as Juventus deflate

Robinho was exquisite too, providing assists to Ibra, but it was the giant's night.  He is now tied with Antonio Di Natale at the top of the scoring table on 18 goals.  And he shows no signs of stopping.

Of course, sometimes perceived injustice can be the best spur.  There is no conspiracy against anyone, and I say that even after the lurid scandal of 2006.  However, what Conte has lost in the last week is his ability to moralize, and his team have lost the ability to win.

 Almost three hours after Milan's proclamations of power, Juventus dropped two valuable points against Chievo in a 1-1 draw. At home.  They have picked up just seven points out of the last fifteen on offer.  And they have all sorts of tough games ahead, while Milan have a much easier schedule.  The Bianconeri are undefeated this season, but they have drawn 12 games, one less than the amount they have won.

"People forget where we came from," said Conte after the draw yesterday.  "Last summer there was talk of us ending up sixth, and now look where we are."

That won't cut it with the jeering Juventus fans, who whistled the team after the game yesterday.  As for  Milan fans, they can thank Boukary Dramè for the late drama yesterday.  At 1-0 Juventus looked like they would see a win through to the end, but then Dramè shot past Gianluigi Buffon, and Juventus defender Leonardo Bonucci did the rest by deflecting the ball in the goal.

Milan are now three points ahead of Juventus, who have a game in hand against Bologna.  After a week of talking about officials and phantom goals, it was heartening to be reminded that the players can still boss this Scudetto showdown.  And there is no bigger boss than Ibra.

The Revenge of Trolls and Tortoises: Milan's Demolition of Arsenal and Lies

Boateng celebrates his dazzling goal against Arsenal

So, did you hear? Milan beat Arsenal 4-0 at the San Siro yesterday.  Yes, Milan, the club from Serie A, the league that some English football fans associate with trolls and tortoises.  Their arguments for such a position organize themselves around two main themes.  First, and this one has had legitimacy for a long time, is the argument that Serie A players, especially Italian ones, are mischievously provocative, excelling in getting the worst out of a game, by fouling, diving, and, well, cheating. Second is the argument that most of the big teams in Serie A play with senescent and slow has-beens, who are no match for the blistering youth of the Premier League.

The build-up and banter to Wednesday's Champions League clash between Milan and Arsenal at the San Siro produced little to unhinge the well-laid narrative.  Milan hadn't won against English opposition since their victorious 2007 Champions League campaign, exiting the tournament to an English team three times in the last five years (Arsenal in 2008, Manchester United in 2009, and Tottenham in 2011).  Massimiliano Allegri's men had already had a trial by press, forums, and British punditry, and they were condemned, almost obligated, to lay down for the Wengerian juggernaut, even if it has been sputtering for a good part of the season in England.

Fan forums around the internet are not supposed to be a bulwark against chest-thumping; indeed, chest-thumping is one of their purposes.  It is ritual. It is one of the preferred, electronic alternatives to the Arsenal vandals who assembled outside Milan's Piazza del Duomo.  What is astonishing is the ability of some English commentators to vandalize common sense.  The commentary I was following in Canada on Sportsnet was innocuous for the most part, its rather neutral tone interrupted only by former West Ham player Tony Gale insisting that "this Milan side aren't really that good."

It was a delusional response to what the left-leaning Italian paper La Repubblica called a "massacre."  I almost got the impression that this was Gale adjusting to the nightmare unfolding before him, a symptom of post-traumatic stress before the trauma was actually complete.  You almost imagined him saying it as he was rocking back and forth, arms around knees.

Perhaps Arsenal did not play that well, but suggesting that they lost to themselves rather than a Milan team that barely let them complete three meaningful passes all game is comforting.  The logic is, of course, simple: once Arsenal come out of this self-inflicted stupor, the hierarchy of football, atop which the Premier League beams down at the rest, will be set right again.

What attests to how comprehensively Arsenal were beaten is Arsene Wenger's inability to come up with one real excuse from that inexhaustible source he possesses in the post-match press conference.  Before the game there had been talk of the abysmal condition of the field, with some commentators gleefully reaching for the trite Machiavellian metaphors to suggest, jokingly, the conspiratorial at work.  All that talk is in abeyance for now.

What is needed after yesterday's match is to provide a proper context that stretches a little further back than February 15th, 2012.  Just as Milan's surrender to English opposition for the last few years was not proof of Italian football's irredeemable decline, so too Milan's crushing win over Arsenal is not proof of the opposite.  Neither is Napoli's win over Manchester City earlier this season.  Italian football has several problems, like the state of their stadia, racism and a fall in the UEFA co-efficient rankings, with which to contend, and the euphoria of European nights like yesterday only banish them temporarily.

Teammates embrace Ibrahimovic after he scores from the spot

Italian football's relation to English football is also a bit more complex than sneering and sloganeering.  John Foot's essential Calcio: A History of Italian Football illuminates just how "until the 1970s when [Italy started beating England] regularly [. . .] the nirvana of victory against England obsessed [Italian] managers and players for decades, and even led to defeats being presented as victories, as with the Lions of Highbury game in 1934"  (Foot 479).  More recently, the chattering class of Italian football has been somewhat deferential to English teams.  That is not to say, however, there isn't chauvinism towards the English among them, but rather that that chauvinism isn't emblematic of a widespread outlook.

Even if for a few moments, Gale actually managed to see and speak in tabloid on Wednesday, unsurprisingly perhaps, for he does write for The Sun.  And yet he is not even the worst offender.  Indeed, his comments were mild compared to what the now disgraced Andy Gray served up in 2007, when he foolishly claimed that Manchester United had Milan "running scared" after a 3-2 semi-final first leg win at Old Trafford.  Milan buried Manchester United 3-0 in the return leg.

Of course, there were other notions that were totally discredited yesterday, like Ibrahimovic not turning up for big games, but I chose to focus on the commentary for a reason.  Arguably, English commentators have more of a responsibility to strive for some semblance of impartiality because they operate in and with the most widely spoken language in the world.  Their words will and do have a greater resonance than commentary in Italian or Spanish.  And yet the Grays and Gales are the ones who are parochial, relying on outdated and misplaced notions, unwilling to come up to speed with the nuances of the Italian game.  A bit like trolls and tortoises.

Milan Take Friuli Flight

Savouring the moment...El Shaarawy

There we were: about fifteen minutes away from another reckoning, another excruciating post-mortem.  Milan were 1-0 down to Udinese at the Stadio Friuli in the 76th minute.  They were third in the table, they were soon to be potentially miles away from Juventus at the top, and they were soon to be a point behind their inhospitable tormentors.   Another big team--after all, Udinese have earned their keep under that category--another Milan loss.  Once again, editorial real estate on blogs and broadsheets was about to subsidize room for the hackneyed--and  Milan were once again to provide the subsidy.

It hasn't taken much imagination to write of Milan's problems recently.  They have done all the work for journalists and commentators.  From the non-signing of Tevez in January to a dependable ability to lose to the big clubs, Milan have simply not acquitted themselves like Italian champions.  It as if they have inherited disgrace from their owner Silvio Berlusconi, whose politics are as incoherent and egregious as Milan's left-back position--though Djamel Mesbah may take exception to that comment after some of his competent performances. 

To say until the 76th minute on Saturday Milan were as incisive as Francesco Totti would be during a parliamentary debate is an exaggeration.  After all, Totti has some background in politics, famously inspiring the slogan meno tasse per Totti (less taxes for Totti), a variation of meno tasse per tutti (less taxes for all), the famous slogan of Berlusconi's Forza Italia! party in the early 2000s.  On Saturday, Milan were blunt, boring, and bad, seemingly content to let Antonio Conte's far from sterling Juventus side leisurely jog to the title.  

In the first half, Massimo Ambrosini was doing his best babe in the woods routine: unseemly not just because there was no time for it, but also because he is well past the time for it. On the other hand, Clarence Seedorf may have done better to have stayed home in a robe, eating from a tub of ice-cream, ruing his loss of speed in front of a television beaming the 2002-03 Champions League highlights.

No one told Stephan El Shaarawy of the suicidal master plan though.  The 19-year-old, with his Sonic the Hedgehog haircut, showed quick feet, running and running in the second half, collecting kilometers as if they were golden rings.  He had little support for long periods of time, but when Massimiliano Allegri finally brought on Maxi Lopez, the wrong Argentinean striker to have been signed in January as far as many Milan fans are concerned, the front-line took a more discernible shape.  The goal came in the 77th minute when El Shaarawy, Il Faraone, the half-Italian, half-Egyptian teenager who has bewitched many before Udinese goalkeeper Samir Handanovic, unleashed an awkward shot from a tough angle outside the area.  Handanovic parried the ball into the path of Lopez who slotted it in.

The goal vindicated two things.  First, it proved beyond any doubt that Lopez can score when it seems impossible not to.  That alone makes him more reliable in front of goal than Robinho, who couldn't hit any one of a herd of sedated, wading elephants from twenty centimeters with a ball.  Secondly, it proved beyond any doubt that Milan can actually score without Zlatan Ibrahimovic (he is serving a three-match ban for warming Salvatore Aronica's ear).

The winner was a beautiful inverse of the equalizer.  Lopez collected the ball out wide, passed to El Shaarawy who powerfully flicked the ball past Handanovic.  In the space of eight minutes, Milan had staggered Udinese, condemning them to their first loss at home of the season.  In the space of eight minutes, Milan had leaped to the top of the table, even if maybe temporarily (Juve have two games in hand).

The man of the moment, of the match, was El Shaarawy.  He had played exquisitely when he needed to, and pragmatically when he needed to, tracking back to make solid tackles.  The victory achieved without Alessandro Nesta, Alberto Aquilani, Kevin-Prince Boateng, Ibrahimovic, Pato and others, seemed like a pivotal point of the season.  Milan have been battered by big teams all season, but just before the Champions League tie against Arsenal on Wednesday, they stretched out of quicksand a hand of defiance.  Despite playing drudgingly for most of the game against Udinese, Milan got the three points.

It is games like this that decide seasons.  It is games like this that make stars.  February just got a little warmer for Milan fans.  

Forza Milan!

Siamo pronti.

Calcio: 2011 and 2012

Full-time poseur: Silvio Berlusconi

I know this is late. I have to confess that I hate the Best or Worst of a Year list, so I won't give you a perfunctory revision of notable events this year in Italian football.  Your level of engagement with football must be profound enough to recall personal moments of exhilaration anyway.

Of course, games like Barcelona's dismemberment of Manchester United in the Champions League Final are unforgettable for many, including neutrals, but I actually forgot about the game within two weeks.  It confirmed that Barcelona need only to put in a fluent performance to get the eager fingers of fawning journalists working in service of Pep Guardiola's men.  Yawn.  Great team, no doubt; great enough to even rival--perhaps, even surpass--that Milan team of Arrigo Sacchi and later Fabio Capello. As a Milan fan, I say that grudgingly of course. 

What stuck out for me in 2011 were trends.  Some are heartening, others distressing.  Since this is an unapologetically Italian football space, I am more concerned with how these trends can and will impact the competitiveness of Italian football in the future.  That and almost solely that is always my chief concern when an impossibly rich Arab takes over a club in France or England, or when UEFA president Michel Platini triumphantly claims that with the introduction of Financial Fair Play rules fiscal sanity is imminent. 

The pathologies of football--greed, delusion to name just two--have been plainly evident for a while.  You can add schizophrenia to that list also.   On the one hand, you have bureaucrats like Platini about to purge the game of excess, and on the other Paris-Saint Germain's Qatari owners have now added themselves to the list of foreign owners seemingly committed on immoderate investment despite FFP.  Manchester City's ludicrous naming rights deal for their stadium is an obvious ruse that illuminates the modus operandi of football's rich.  It remains to be seen how exacting FFP's stipulation of agreeing commercial deals at market value really is.  

Not for nothing has Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger become more cynical than usual.  Unlike his coiffure, the Frenchman seems perennially ruffled about something, but his wariness of all the talk about probity and health in football is justified.  

Where does this leave Italy? Platini and others have maintained that the FFP is being introduced after the complaints of wealthy owners like Silvio Berlusconi and Massimo Moratti.  There certainly appears to be, then, two classes of rich people in football currently.  The ownership of Manchester City, PSG, and to a lesser, but still considerable, extent Chelsea, are willing to spend for success.  Moratti and Berlusconi, however, do not seem willing to test the limits of FFP.

"The money in football is crazy," said Berlusconi recently. "Don't forget that PSG have Qatari investment behind them now.  I have made generous, perhaps too generous, investment in Milan for many years."

Even his disgraceful exit from politics this year seems not to have diminished his posturing.  FFP is the perfect alibi for Berlusconi, who has spent considerably less on players over the years because he simply does not want to any longer.  

Pioneers: Reggiana (maroon shirts) at the Stadio Giglio

The folks at Inter have been much more candid about their plans.  CEO Enresto Paolillo has come out and said clearly that Inter's strategy has changed, and they will sign much younger players.  Their market plans cannot get going unless they sell big, and Wesley Sneijder is the one player who can bring in a lot of money, so he may indeed be sacrificed.

In a country where methods of merchandising, sponsorship, and, most importantly, private ownership of stadia are embarrassingly outdated or non-existent, taking away the ability of a patron to intervene when needed seems to be a crushing blow to its football.  But there are mitigating factors.

For one, Juventus unveiled their sparkling stadium, Juventus Arena, as proof that even in Italy, bureaucracy and vested interests can be overcome.  The Bianconeri deserve all the plaudits for their feat.  Their stadium will reportedly take their income to fifteen percent of their revenue, providing them a far more balanced portfolio.   Serie B side Reggiana--distinct from Reggina--are the only other club in Italy to own their stadium, the Stadio Giglio.

There have been encouraging efforts towards private ownership of stadia, but they remain incipient, paralyzed by a toxic bureaucracy.  The law known as Legge Crimi, which I wrote about in 2011, still remains dismayingly far from fruition. Despite the delay, clubs are approaching city councils in a hope to refurbish dilapidated stadia, and leading this initiative are trailblazers such as Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis and Roma president Thomas DiBenedetto.

Milan have not pursued the idea of owning an arena.  Vice-president Galliani asserted that what Juventus have done in Turin is "impossible" to do in Milan.  Instead, they have struck a lucrative deal with the largest oil company in Albania, Taci Oil, whose owner, Renzart Taci, is a committed Milan fan.  It is now common to see Taci digital billboards at San Siro.

There is some hope, then.  It was difficult to imagine that Italian clubs, long at the forefront of Europe, would surrender so easily to the English, Spanish, and the Germans; so, on the field, Italian clubs have enjoyed an outstanding run of results in Europe, a rare sight made even rarer in recent years by the Europa League, which is widely seen as a contemptible, bloated cousin of the Champions League.

However, both Udinese and Lazio are through to the next phase of the competition, and that achievement coupled with Napoli's ability to squeeze out of a Champions League group containing the heavyweights of Bayern Munich, Villarreal, and Manchester City makes Serie A serious again.  The Partenopei face Chelsea in the round of 16, while Milan take on Arsenal, and Inter Marseille, ties that have all been deemed easier-than-what-could-have-been.

While the progress of Milan and Inter in the Champions League hasn't startled anyone, Napoli and Udinese have humbled even the most dedicated Serie A critics.  Udinese's 2-0 win over Atletico Madrid at the Friuli effectively sealed their qualification, and it came despite no Antonio Di Natale, who was rested.  Even after selling Gokhan Inler and Alexis Sanchez, Udinese have not only remained competitive, but have perhaps enhanced their reputation as a club that has a vigorous scouting system and monumental self-belief.

Against Celtic, at Celtic Park, hardly the place for a stroll, Udinese coach Francesco Guidolin rested almost all his players and came home with a 1-1 draw.

"We must interpret the competition this way," said Guidolin of the Europa League, after he was criticized for his apparent temerity.  "Otherwise our youth won't get a chance."

Legends: Roberto Baggio and Demetrio Albertini

Napoli, who admittedly operate on a budget superior to that of Udinese, dismantled Manchester City with the same swagger.  It is the Italian clubs' renewed trust in the system, as a purely footballing approach, that is sparking both a sort of revivalism--dispelling notions that the way Italian clubs play is not 'modern enough'--and a movement that is inaugurating and adopting long-needed ideas.

Former Italian football legends, Demetrio Albertini, who is the vice-president of the FIGC, and Roberto Baggio, who oversees the technical sector for the FIGC, have identified specific areas of improvement, chief among which is the way the youth is handled in Italy.

"There are too many foreigners," said Albertini earlier in 2011.  "Our youngsters don't get chances because clubs rely too much on foreigners."

Seems like a reductive and xenophobic statement, but it has an element of truth.  Italian clubs simply have not been nurturing talent, talent that is becoming increasingly diffident because of the lack of opportunities.  Hopefully, Albertini works with clubs to make the youth systems more appealing for them; indeed, with the FFP, the youth systems of clubs could become even more crucial.

On the international scene, the Azzurri under Cesare Prandelli look ardent enough to register on Euro2012.  The group containing Ireland, Croatia, and Spain looks difficult, but I can see in the team, even if in glimpses, the same confidence that Marcello Lippi had instilled in his team before the 2006 World Cup triumph.  Even Antonio Cassano's illness and Giuseppe Rossi's injury have done little to quell expectations of players and fans.

Prandelli must find the competitiveness of Serie A gratifying.  Milan and Juventus sit level on points, with Lazio, Udinese, and Inter all in pursuit of top-spot.  Napoli and Roma will have some sort of say on the Scudetto-- if not directly, then indirectly in the form of taking points off the leading pack.

Italian football may be battered, but it is by no means moribund.  As an expression of football, it still holds some power over Europe, and 2012 may be a rewarding year for its school and philosophy.  Away from the bureaucratic battles, these battles and trends are heartening.

Happy New Year!

Faith in Five

Udinese celebrate Antonio Di Natale's equalizer against Celtic

Perhaps it was a rare moment of patriotism, or even a rarer moment of foresight.  When it comes to the club level, Italian football is not normally known for either, and yet what many Italian football fans realized on Thursday, as Udinese played out the dying seconds of the draw that they needed against Celtic to enter the next phase of the Europa League, was that five Italian teams would be in European competition in the new year.  For once, Italian participants in the Europa League, an officially reinvigorated second-tier competition that already seems moribund, put in the graft without any promise of lucrative reward.

Like it or not, as I have persistently written in the past, the Europa League counts just as much as the Champions League when it comes to that well-concealed UEFA coefficient points system, a system that has pervasive consequences for how much money a league can hope to see from the Champions League.  Italy has already lost its fourth Champions League spot, which makes the top three spots in the Serie A coveted real estate.  For this year though, Napoli's searing run through Manchester City has been the apotheosis of Serie A's campaign in Europe.  Quite simply, Milan and Inter have not impressed as much, and that is even after you take into account the Rossoneri's theatrical, for all the good reasons, 3-2 loss to Barcelona.

What Lazio and Udinese have done in the Europa League is crucial work for the Italian bid, leaving Serie A in a position to amass a points total of 15 or greater this year.  Doing so, will let them steer clear of France, who are menacing in fifth spot, but now only have two representatives left in this year's competition--Marseille and Lyon in the Champions League.  Also, if Italy do want to reclaim the third spot in the rankings, then beating Germany this year could be foundational for that challenge.  The Bundesliga only have four representatives left in the competition, and when you consider Bayer Leverkusen are up against Barcelona, Italy's chances to charge ahead of Germany this year seem promising.

Currently, Italy is on 9.500 points (see table below), already about two points behind the total they managed last year.  Remember, a win in UEFA competition for Italy means 2 points (a draw means 1) divided by 7, the total number of positions that Italy is allotted (consider how important, then, it was for Milan to hold onto their 2-0 lead against Viktoria Plzen on Matchday 6, or for Inter to beat Trabzonspor on Matchday 1).

In the Europa League, Udinese have been handed a somewhat easier task of going past Greek side PAOK Saloniki in the round of thirty-two, while Lazio come up against far more daunting opposition in Atletico Madrid.  In the Champions League, the Italian contingent should feel confident.  For one, Napoli and Milan have avoided Real Madrid, and secondly, they are up against sides that they seem able to beat.  Milan will want to avenge the elimination at the hands of Arsenal in the 2007-08 campaign, and they should be optimistic of restitution with a sturdier backline, a competent, at times spectacular, frontline, and a revitalized midfield, which may have problems and some deficiencies, but is nonetheless equipped to play a containing game.  Napoli, on the other hand, will be brimming with self-belief after defeating Premiership champions-elect Manchester City this year to effectively qualify for the knockout stages; surpassing Chelsea definitely does not seem impossible.  Inter's clash with Marseille seems the easiest, and the most conducive to put more distance between Italy and France in the rankings.

With five Italian clubs still in the European pursuit, Italy joins England and Spain in the group of countries with the most representatives left in UEFA competition.  Given that Manchester United and Manchester City have dropped down into the Europe's second-tier, winning the Europa League will be much harder for Lazio and Udinese.  However, the goal should be at least the quarter-final stage for one, if not both, clubs.  As for the Champions League, a sustained run for all three clubs will emphatically put Italy back in contention, and redress some of the European heartache and frustrations of recent years.  There are certainly many structural issues--stadia ownership being chief among them--with which Italy has to contend to bolster its chances in Europe in the long run.  However, while as a brand Italian football may be a bit behind, as a quintessential football product, a result of a school and philosophy, it is still registering.

UEFA Coefficient Rankings taken from Bert Kassies's website

Serie A's Europa League Fight

The right noise...Edy Reja

Finally, at long last, Lazio coach Edy Reja said the right things moments before his side's crunch encounter with Romanian club Vaslui in the Europa League: "We will play a competitive team in Romania."  Speculation suggests that Miroslav Klose will start from the outset as will Djibril Cisse and Hernanes.  

Oh wait, did you forget? Yes, the Europa League is happening right now.  This week, the Europa League theoretically had the European limelight to itself since the Champions League, its richer, better looking, more popular cousin, was off until a reappearance next week.  And yet, earlier this week, there was scarcely any mention in the Italian media of the two matches that Udinese and Lazio had to play.  Most of the focus, perhaps somewhat justifiably, was on Napoli's game against Juventus on Tuesday.

For the future of Italian football, the Europa League is solemnly significant.  As I have written previously, it is not only that Italy have dropped behind the Bundesliga that is the concern, but also that France and Portugal are making inroads on the fourth spot in the UEFA coefficient ranking, a spot currently held by an increasingly nervous looking Serie A.  Well, at least, you would like to think the league is nervous, and not fatally complacent.

"When it comes to the Europa League, our clubs rest players," said the typical harbinger of doom and gloom, Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani, earlier this season.  "This is why we're behind Cyprus this year."

Europa League Group D standings taken from uefa.com

Lest the calcio lover is anxious about a power shift from Rome, Milan, and Turin to Nicosia, Limassol, and Larnaka, we need to put things into a more ruddy context. Udinese's 0-0 draw with Rennes last night means they only have to avoid defeat against Celtic at home on December 15th to make it into the next round.  And if Lazio defeat Vaslui in Romania today, then the Biancoceleste will also qualify. 

Europa League Group I standings taken from uefa.com

However, while these games do not seem monumentally difficult, it is the ability for Italian clubs to make them difficult that is unnerving.  Udinese should have come home with the three points yesterday, but Francesco Guidolin rested players like Antonio Di Natale and Giampiero Pinzi. Notwithstanding that, only the upright denied what seemed a certain goal for Antonio Floro Flores.  Guidolin could argue that it was not only he who rested players yesterday.  Harry Redknapp did too, and Tottenham duly lost at home to PAOK Saloniki.  However, the Premier League isn't fighting for its face, its identity, and its spot at the summit of the coefficient rankings, a spot that looks assured for years to come.

Yet, when Guidolin was asked whether he would stop rotating players if Udinese made it out of their group, he remained non-committal, responding with a "we will see."

As thrilling as they can be, victories like the one Napoli claimed over Manchester City in the Champions League will not solely decide where Italian football sits in a few years.  There is a fight for prominence going on, away from the glare and riches of the Champions League, and it counts.  That fight is in the Europa League--in the back-alley and by the dockside.  Serie A better be ready for it.