Serie A is second only to the Premier: that’s why

We sail between cups and championships, tossed by the waves of a season we had never seen or experienced – with a World Cup in between – and which we will almost certainly never see or relive. It is difficult not to sink, because the matches are overwhelming: we were used to a breathless, clogged and hectic schedule, but this time it went further. And we feared that, with so many commitments, everything would get out of hand: our football has been going for very hard years, the staff are not as wide and competitive as they used to be, will we be able to resist? We are resisting, yes. Indeed, we are approaching the shore with strong strokes: whether it is a definitive landing place is not known, but it certainly gives us comfort.

Satisfaction

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If the Champions League is the mirror of a country’s technical level, and to some extent it is, we have good reasons to be satisfied. Above all for one reason: if we manage to bring three teams to the round of 16 – we can do it, it will largely depend on Milan – we would probably be the second force on the continent in terms of number of qualified teams behind the mistress England, who should realize the en plein. An unexpected path, which would place us in front of Spain, which risks having only Real in the knockout phase: Atletico are more outside than inside, Sevilla and Barcelona are virtually eliminated. And the Catalans, barring sensational surprises, will leave the cup at the hands of Inter, in spite of Xavi’s disrespectful outburst towards the Nerazzurri (“If we don’t beat this team at home, it’s right that we go out”). Napoli is the flagship of Italian football in these first two months of the season: no one in Europe is so beautiful, enthralling, exciting, spectacular. And a winner, too. The ideal point of conjunction between the Champions League and Serie A: in the cup it has overwhelmed everyone, including Liverpool; in the league he did not give up, proving to have absorbed the farewells of players who seemed irreplaceable, from Koulibaly to Insigne, from Fabian Ruiz to Mertens. When Capello said for the first time that the Italian league was not a coach for the teams participating in the cups, many took it badly. Today we can think that the opposite is happening slowly, and that is that Serie A is preparing our teams again in an appropriate way for the impact with Europe. If this happens, it’s more for the strength of ideas than money (we don’t have that). The ideas of Napoli, as mentioned: reduce the amount of wages and fly. But also the ideas of the new Atalanta, less beautiful and more ruthless; Udinese, who draw excellent players everywhere; obviously from Milan, who built a championship for us on the enhancement of talents, conquered by putting the accounts back on track.

Championship

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The Turin derby – which Juve is facing in the midst of a terrible crisis – introduces us to a month that will say a lot in the race for the Scudetto. Between now and November 13, when the championship leaves room for the World Cup, six days will be played: they will not reveal who will win the title, but they will tell us who will not be able to win it. Inter and (above all) Juve cannot still move away from the first if they want to be protagonists in the decisive moment. The time has already come when – for them – it is forbidden to make mistakes.