Let’s be honest here, people, predicting the English football scores has proved to be a lot trickier than many of us imagined.

You’d have thought that the frankly obsessive interest most of us here at Reuters Soccer Blog Heights take in football would see us approach this competition with the pitiless, sweeping brilliance of Celta Vigo in their ‘EuroCelta‘ heydey of 1998-2000*.

But no. It turns out we’re strictly second division, rather like Celta now, in fact, when it comes to predicting the scores. Still, at least we now know why.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger puts his success in football down to being brought up in the Croix d’Or bistro in Duttlenheim. Wenger said:

“I even learned about tactics and selection from the people talking about football in the pub… who plays on the left wing and who should be in the team.”

This is good news for me, as my dad was brought up in a pub so I’m going to get him to do my predictions this week. Expect great things.

To recap, briefly, you get one point for predicting the right result, and make that five points if you get the score spot on. This week there are double points, and possible forfeits, for Stoke v Manchester United, and there are always bonus points available, but I’m afraid they are entirely on my whim. Here’s how things stand at the moment:

Reuters Soccer Blog: Simon Evans 46, Kevin Fylan 42, Paul Radford 41, Patrick Johnston 40, Justin Palmer 35, Miles Evans 35, Mitch Phillips 35, Mike Collett 28, Neil Maidment 26, Julien Pretot 25, Mark Meadows 16, Asia Sports Desk 15

Rest of the World: Maid leads with a whopping 63, Chipking is second on 54 and UTV got a mighty 15 on debut.

How are the rest of you doing? Remember, the scoring has been so poor that you can still join in at any time and expect to overtake most of us within a couple of weeks. Look at UTV: another week like last week and she’ll be in mid-table security.

So, here are this week’s games. I’ll add in our predictions as they come in from around the Reuter Soccer Blogosphere. And please, give us yours in the comments section.

Portsmouth v Everton: Simon Evans: 1-1; Terry Fylan: 0-2; Paul Radford: 0-0; Patrick Johnston:1-2 ; Justin Palmer: ; Miles Evans: 2-2; Mitch Phillips:1-0; Mike Collett: 0-2 ; Neil Maidment: 0-2; Julien Pretot : 2-1; Mark Meadows: 0-1; Asia Sports Desk: 1-1

Birmingham City v Bolton Wanderers: Simon Evans: 2-1; Terry Fylan: 1-0; Paul Radford: 2-1; Patrick Johnston: 1-0 ; Justin Palmer: ; Miles Evans: 2-1; Mitch Phillips:1-1; Mike Collett: 1-0 ; Neil Maidment: 1-1; Julien Pretot : 1-0; Mark Meadows: 2-1; Asia Sports Desk: 1-1

Blackburn Rovers v Aston Villa: Simon Evans: 1-2; Terry Fylan: 1-2; Paul Radford: 0-1; Patrick Johnston: 0-2; Justin Palmer: ; Miles Evans: 1-3; Mitch Phillips: 1-0; Mike Collett: 0-2; Neil Maidment: 1-3; Julien Pretot : 1-1; Mark Meadows: 0-2; Asia Sports Desk: 0-1

Liverpool v Hull City: Simon Evans: 2-0; Terry Fylan: 6-0; Paul Radford: 6-0; Patrick Johnston: 5-0 ; Justin Palmer: ; Miles Evans: 2-1; Mitch Phillips: 1-1; Mike Collett: 5-0; Neil Maidment: 4-0; Julien Pretot : 4-0; Mark Meadows: 2-0; Asia Sports Desk: 3-0

Stoke City v Manchester United: Simon Evans: 0-2; Terry Fylan: 0-2; Paul Radford: 0-0; Patrick Johnston: 1-2 ; Justin Palmer: ; Miles Evans: 1-1; Mitch Phillips: 0-2; Mike Collett: 0-2; Neil Maidment: 1-2; Julien Pretot : 1-3; Mark Meadows: 0-1; Asia Sports Desk: 0-2

Tottenham Hotspur v Burnley: Simon Evans: 1-1; Terry Fylan: 3-1; Paul Radford: 3-1; Patrick Johnston: 4-1 ; Justin Palmer: ; Miles Evans: 3-2; Mitch Phillips: 2-0; Mike Collett: 3-1; Neil Maidment: 3-0; Julien Pretot : 3-1; Mark Meadows: 2-0; Asia Sports Desk: 2-1

Wigan Athletic v Chelsea: Simon Evans: 0-2; Terry Fylan: 0-3; Paul Radford: 0-3; Patrick Johnston: 0-2 ; Justin Palmer: ; Miles Evans: 0-2; Mitch Phillips:1-1; Mike Collett: 0-4; Neil Maidment: 0-3; Julien Pretot : 0-2; Mark Meadows: 1-4; Asia Sports Desk: 0-3

Fulham v Arsenal: Simon Evans: 1-1; Terry Fylan: 2-2; Paul Radford: 1-2; Patrick Johnston: 0-2 ; Justin Palmer: ; Miles Evans: 1-4; Mitch Phillips: 0-1; Mike Collett: 1-3; Neil Maidment: 1-3; Julien Pretot : 1-3; Mark Meadows: 1-1; Asia Sports Desk: 1-3

Playing on Sunday:

Sunderland v Wolverhampton Wanderers: Simon Evans: 2-1; Terry Fylan: 0-0; Paul Radford: 2-1; Patrick Johnston: 3-0 ; Justin Palmer: ; Miles Evans: 1-1; Mitch Phillips:0-0; Mike Collett: 1-1; Neil Maidment: 2-1; Julien Pretot : 1-0; Mark Meadows: 0-0; Asia Sports Desk: 0-0

Playing on Monday:

Manchester City v West Ham United: Simon Evans: 3-0; Terry Fylan: 4-1; Paul Radford: 3-0; Patrick Johnston: 2-1; Justin Palmer: ; Miles Evans: 2-2; Mitch Phillips: 0-1; Mike Collett: 3-0; Neil Maidment : 3-0; Julien Pretot : 3-0; Mark Meadows: 3-1; Asia Sports Desk: 3-0

* They really were good, as well. Lubo Penev, Valery Karpin, “After You” Claude Makelele, Alexander Mostovoi, Mazinho… (And sorry to any fans of Aston Villa, Liverpool, Benfica or Juventus for bringing back unpleasant memories).

PHOTO: Michael Owen gets a rude awakening from Mazinho as Alexander Mostovoi looks on during their UEFA Cup third round first leg match at Balaidos, November 24, 1998. Celta won 3-1. REUTERS/Sergio Perez

The Champions League is back and our reporters are currently wringing out their wet things (Mitch Phillips at Chelsea)/basking in the evening sunshine by the River Manzanares (Iain Rogers at Atletico) and undergoing all climactic variations in between.

Tonight’s first tranche of eight matches includes a repeat of the very first Champions League final, with AC Milan visiting Marseille, plus the European debut of Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka for Real Madrid, with the Spaniards visiting Zurich.

We also have Manchester United at Besiktas, Wolfsburg hosting CSKA, Atletico at home to APOEL, Bayern Munich visiting Maccabi Haifa and Juventus against Bordeaux.

We’ll have every goal as they go in here, plus a few bits of commentary from me, and our reporters if the comms hold up, along the way.

I really appreciate comments, so please give your views in the comment section below. And can you name the player in the photo…?

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FC Zurich 2 Real Madrid 5: Cristiano Ronaldo responded to some less than flattering chants among the home fans by scoring from a free kick from the edge of the area. 1-0 in the 27th minute and Real Madrid are on their way to, well, Madrid. Seven minutes later and it’s 2-0 Real. This time Raul, who tapped in Gonzalo Higuain’s shot and is closing in on that record for goals in the European Cup. Let me have a rifle through the stats book… But in the mean time, Higuain has bagged the third himself. Too easy for Real… or is it?

The crowd livens up again with a 64th minute penalty from Xavier Margairaz and a minute later Silvan Aegerter makes it 2-3. Game on? Well, it got nervy for Real bu another free kick from Ronaldo sealed matters, with Guti’s effort in the 95th minute the cake icing.

Marseille 1 Milan 2: First goal of the 2009-10 edition of the Champions League goes to Milan, and Filippo Inzaghi. A superb cross from Seedorf for Inzaghi, left unmarked at far post, and he taps in from close range. 1-0 to the Italians in the 27th minute. Marseille level four minutes after the restart through the former Manchester United and Real Madrid defender Gabriel Heinze, who heads home a Benoit Cheyrou free kick. 2-1 to Milan with another Inzaghi goal with 16 minutes left on the clock.

Wolfsburg 3 CSKA 1: Wolfsburg have taken to the Champions League like a duck to water. The Brazilian Grafite, a much underrated player I remember well from my time in Germany, scored the first two goals, the first after 35 minutes, the second a penalty five minutes later. Alan Dzagoev pulls one back with 13 minutes to go. But Grafite completes his hat-trick three minutes from time and surely this is over now!

Chelsea 1 Porto 0: Don’t know what happened to my earlier udpate. Chelsea are ahead in the second half after Nicoals Anelka saw his first effort stopepd and then managed to fire on from a tricky angle.

Juventus 1 Bordeaux 1: Vincenzo Iaquinta puts Juventus up in the 63rd minute but Jaroslav Plasil evens things up with 15 minutes to go.

Maccabi Haifa 0 Bayern Munich 3: It’s raining goals now. The Germans are away thanks to a goal from Daniel van Buyten. Most of these matches going to form now and Bayern duly wrap up the win with two late goals from Thomas Mueller. Not a bad week for Mueller, who also scored two as Bayern beat Dortmund 5-1 in the Bundesliga on Saturday.

Besiktas 0 Manchester United 1. United are finally awake. It was a powerful shot by Nani that led to the goal in the 77th minute. The keeper parried it and Paul Scholes nodded in off the post, from a reasonable way out. Good header that.

The only match to finish goalless is Atletico Madrid v APOEL.

PHOTO: A mystery Chelsea player at training in Cobham, south of London, September 14, 2009. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh

Jose Mourinho is no stranger to run-ins with rival club managers, but this week the Portuguese raised his aim and had a swipe at Italian national team boss Marcello Lippi.

The Inter Milan coach had taken exception to Lippi tipping Juventus for this year’s Serie A title.
He accused him of lacking respect, arguing a national team coach should be seen to be impartial even if deep down he wants Juve to win (Lippi had two glorious stints at the Turin club split by a dismal, short one at Inter).

Mourinho even added mysteriously that “this makes me think a great deal”.

Lippi responded by saying it was just a prediction: “Mourinho seemed an intelligent person to me, I’m sorry he’s interpreted things differently. You can’t say half a word”.

The Inter boss’s reaction struck me as a little thin skinned too. It’s not as if Lippi said he was rooting for Juve or would be lending a hand to their new boss Ciro Ferrara, his former assistant in the Italy backroom staff.

But I was surprised to see in a survey on La Gazzetta dello Sport’s website that, while most people were on Lippi’s side, a sizeable minority of around 40 percent believed Mourinho had grounds to grumble.

What do you think? Is Mourinho overreacting, possibly in an attempt to instil a siege mentality into his players for the upcoming campaign? Or should Lippi keep his predictions to himself in future?

PHOTO: Inter Milan’s coach Jose Mourinho (L) gestures during their Italian Super Cup soccer match against Lazio at the National Olympic Stadium in Beijing August 8, 2009. REUTERS/David Gray

Ever since returning to Serie A following their demotion for match-fixing, Juventus have had a terrible run in the transfer market.

Third and second-placed finishes in their two years back in the top flight are largely thanks to players who stuck with Juve during their season in Serie B such as Alessandro Del Piero and Giorgio Chiellini.

In contrast, new recruits such as midfielders Tiago and Christian Poulsen have been frustrating at best while former Aston Villa defender Olof Mellberg lasted just a season before being shipped off to Olympiakos.

Juve have also tried to sell Poulsen and Tiago but both players have said they would rather stay.

Right back Zdenek Grygera has not convinced all the Juve faithful while striker Amauri had a good start to last term following a big move from Palermo but his form fizzled out towards the end of the campaign.

For this season Juve have re-signed Fabio Cannavaro from Real Madrid, a move which has angered fans who have not forgiven him for leaving the club following their demotion. (Cannavaro argues it was Juve’s economic decision to sell).

Brazilian playmaker Diego, who has arrived from Werder Bremen, obviously has the skill but supporters worry his style of play will not suit Juve’s traditional 4-4-2 formation and may upset the apple cart.

Juve’s bid for Udinese midfielder Gaetana D’Agostino looks to have failed and media reports say they are now targeting Liverpool’s Xabi Alonso having surprisingly opted to pursue Poulsen last year rather than the technically superior Spaniard.

Can they get it right this time and really challenge Inter Milan for the scudetto?

PHOTO: Juventus midfielder Christian Poulsen (R) fights for the ball with Inter Milan’s Luis Figo during their Italian Serie A match in Turin April 18, 2009. REUTERS/Alessandro Garofalo

There is nothing new about putting expensively assembled football teams into the hands of former players with glorious on-field pasts and little coaching experience. But I think it’s fair to say that Pep Guardiola’s remarkable success in his maiden season in the Barcelona dugout contributed to AC Milan and Juventus recently appointing novice managers Leonardo and Ciro Ferrara.

Juve’s Italy defender Nicola Legrottaglie said he sees Ferrara as “the Italian response to Guardiola”. Milan chief executive Adriano Galliani, meanwhile, preferred to compare Leonardo to the precedent they set with Fabio Capello, who like the Brazilian was a club director before his 1991-96 stint in charge that produced four Serie A titles and a Champions League.

Leonardo’s apparent weakness is that he is absolutely new to coaching. Guardiola had been successful with Barcelona B before he got the first-team job at the Camp Nou. Ferrara can count on his experience at the helm of Juve’s youth team and at Marcello Lippi’s side in the Italy coaching staff, as well as the two matches he won in Serie A to clinch automatic Champions League qualification after Claudio Ranieri was sacked.

Ferrara’s challenge may be how to stamp his authority in the locker room. He now finds himself in charge of the team’s so-called senators, such as Alessandro Del Piero, Mauro Camoranesi and David Trezeguet, after playing alongside them before retiring in 2005. This could complicate matters if he wants to drop one of his old team mates. But if he is seen to favour them it could create rifts.

It might be easier for Leonardo to be the tough guy when necessary as, although he is younger than Ferrara, his playing days are further behind him.

Lippi, however, is confident Ferrara has what it takes to overcome these hurdles: “He has the charisma, personality, intelligence, wisdom and charm to establish a relationship with top level professionals and construct something important with them.”

The pair’s ability to match the success of Guardiola and Capello will also depend on the raw materials the clubs give them to work with in the transfer market.

Kaka’s sale to Real Madrid should give Milan the money for much needed squad rejuvenation, while one of Leonardo’s challenges will be to restore Ronaldinho to his best so his playmaker compatriot is not missed. It will also be interesting to see if he is better than his predecessor Carlo Ancelotti at convincing the club to buy the players he wants rather than big names who are easy to land.

Ancelotti wanted someone like Arsenal’s Emmanuel Adebayor or Palermo’s Amauri, who was snapped up by Juve, for his attack last year. Instead he ended up with Ronaldinho and Andriy Shevchenko, both of whom had poor seasons.

Ferrara will be able to base his attack on new signing Diego and Fabio Cannavaro’s return will bolster the backline. But with Pavel Nedved gone, the Turin side still look a couple of good signings short of being able to topple Inter Milan in Serie A and go all the way in Europe.

PHOTO: AC Milan’s Leonardo poses for photographers with club chief executive Adriano Galliani (R) after replacing Carlo Ancelotti as coach, June 1, 2009. REUTERS/Paolo Bona

The departure of Kaka from AC Milan to Real Madrid marks the end of the Italian era in European football. Not only can Italian clubs not attract the best players in the world to play in Serie A but now, when they unearth a talent like Kaka, they can’t stop them from leaving.

Italians used to describe their Serie A as ‘il campionato piu bello del mondo’ , the most beautiful championship in the world. It was not just because Italians love nothing more than talking themselves up — Serie A was the first league in the world to sign up top foreign stars, bringing in international talent at a time when the English league, for example, stretched no further than Scotland in search of players.

Beginning in the late 1950’s when the likes of Brazilian Jose Altafini (AC Milan) and Welshman John Charles (Juventus) were among the top performers, Serie A prided itself on being the league that had the money to bring in the best in the world.

After the 1966 World Cup, where Italy was humiliated by North Korea, foreigners were banned as part of an attempt to strengthen the domestic talent base and the national team, but when the rule was relaxed in 1980, the top clubs began importing talent again and before long Italy had become the first league to truly take on global status.

Frenchman Michel Platini at Juventus led the new wave and then the biggest name of all, Diego Maradona almost single-handedly led Napoli to titles in 1987 and 1990. The great Milan sides of Arrigo Sacchi and Fabio Capello were built around foreign stars — the Dutch trio of Frank Rijkaard, Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten helped transform Serie A from a league dominated by cautious and defensive teams into a showcase for the world’s best talent.

Germany’s Lothar Matthaeus and Andreas Brehme helped Inter to the title in 1989, and by the nineties, any player in the world who could be considered a match-winner was being snapped up by an Italian team.

Just ten years ago, the top teams in Serie A included players such as Ronaldo at Inter, George Weah and a young Andriy Shevchenko at Milan, Gabriel Batistuta at Fiorentina, Hernan Crespo, Pavel Nedved and Juan Sebastian Veron (all at their peak) at Lazio and the best of his generation, Zinedine Zidane at Juventus. It was the departure of the latter to Real Madrid in 2001 that suggested Spain was beginning to replace Italy as the place where the world’s best could get paid best.

Since then though, England’s Premier League, flush with television cash, has begun gobbling up players that in the past would have headed to Serie A. In the 1990’s the likes of Fernando Torres, Michael Ballack, Cristiano Ronaldo, Carlos Tevez and Didier Drogba would have almost certainly been Serie A players. Real and Barcelona in Spain and Bayern Munich in Germany have also proven stronger in the transfer market that Italy’s top teams. It would have once been unthinkable that Italian World Cup hero such as Luca Toni would choose to play in the Bundesliga rather than in Milan or Turin.

A week after Milan captain Paolo Maldini, who played with or against all those great talents from the late eighties onwards, finally hung up his boots, Kaka leaves Milan for a fee of around 68 million euros and Adriano Galliani, who runs Milan on behalf of tycoon and prime minister Silvio Berlusconi conceded the golden era of Serie A was now over: “Ten years ago Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo could have played in Italy but now no one even considers it,” he said.

That is the painful truth for Italian fans — it is not so much that Italian clubs cannot compete with Real’s occasional obscene bouts of cash-throwing that hurts but that Italian clubs are no longer even considered as likely destinations for the world’s best or most promising.

Berlusconi talked up Ronaldinho as the man who will now be the standard-bearer for Milan but the impression is that he moved to Italy after his best years, served with Barcelona, were over.

Money is the main reason for Italy’s relegation from Europe’s elite — Milan, Inter and Juventus no longer have the resources to compete with England and Spain’s top clubs. Italian clubs ignored marketing and merchandising as they presumed their wealthy owners — the Berlusconi, Moratti and Agnelli families — would take care of everything. Moratti still finds the cash but Milan and Juve now operate in the world of budgets rather than blockbuster transfer deals.

With the lack of foreign quality and top wages, Serie A has lost the sheen of glamour that once led fans from all over the world to tune in and watch. The days when Ronaldo and Zidane were face to face in an Inter-Juve match, with a supporting cast of quality Italians and exciting foreign players, is over. Does anyone watch Serie A on satellite or cable anymore?

The proof that this really is the end of an era is the way that the Italian media and fans have just shrugged their shoulders at the departure of Kaka. They know they cannot turn down offers of that size — offers their own teams used to make every summer.

KAKA: Kaka attends Brazilian training at Arruda stadium in Recife, northeastern Brazil, June 8, 2009. REUTERS/Sergio Moraes

ZIDANE: Zinedine Zidane shows his Juventus shirt at a news conference announcing his move to Turin, July 3, 1996. REUTERS/Claudio Papi

Notts County might have been in the wilderness for many years now but they have never been far from the footballing consciousness.

Remember the great Glen Campbell hit of the 1960s “Wichita Lineman” which opens with: “I am a lineman for the county”.

It didn’t take long for wags to change that to: “I am the linesman at Notts County” and I’ve been told that linesman at Meadow Lane have been humming that tune to themselves ever since.

Notts also has the unique distinction of linking Italian giants Juventus, post-war English scoring hero Tommy Lawton and 19th century footballer Harry Cursham, who has scored more goals in the history of the FA Cup than any other player.

But more of that in a moment.

Now fans of Notts, the world’s oldest football league club, have rather more to think about than dwell on their club’s 147 years of under-achievement after hearing some truely astonishing news this week.

For Notts, whose glory days were long, long ago and who finished five places off the bottom of League Two (the fourth division in old money) this season, are about to be taken over by a mega-rich consortium of Middle East businessmen.

They dream of taking them back to the top after decades in the doldrums.

It is an interesting development and shows that it is not just Premier League clubs like Manchester City, Portsmouth and the others attracting overseas owners with millions or billions to invest.

John Armstrong-Holmes, the club’s chairman, says it makes perfect sense to him that overseas investors would want to buy a club and manage it carefully through the divisions rather than by raising debts and paying out millions in interest every year.

Taking the club back to the top might be highly romantic on one hand and appeal to the game’s traditionalists but also shows that perhaps in football, money is ever more increasingly the driving factor for success, even more than talent.

But it wouldn’t be the first time that Notts County have stunned the football world. In November 1947 Lawton, then an England international at the peak of his game, moved from first division Chelsea to third division County for a British record transfer fee of 20,000 pounds ($32,090), helping them win promotion in 1950.

It truely was a sensational transfer at the time.

In the 1880s Cursham could not stop scoring goals for County and his 49 in the FA Cup is a record that has never been beaten.

Meanwhile, Juventus owe their famous black-and-white striped kit to County. Years ago Juve used to play in pink shirts which faded with every wash. An English player at the club had a mate at County who sent him a decent set of black-and-white shirts to use instead. Juve have worn those colours ever since.

Notts County v Juventus in the Champions League come 2015 or 2016? Don’t bet against it. Stranger things have happened in soccer, like County being taken over by a Middle East consortium…

PHOTO: Seen that kit before? Former Juventus midfielder Pavel Nedved celebrates after scoring against Lecce during their Serie A match in Turin May 3, 2009. REUTERS/Alessandro Garofalo

Just three years ago Juve were facing up to the fact they’d be playing in Serie B after being found guilty of match-fixing.

Now, they sit third in Serie A with two games to go but that is not good enough for the Old Lady of Turin. The risk they might miss out on an automatic Champions League spot was too great.

Claudio Ranieri has been sacked despite doing wonders last term when they comfortably finished third.

His team beat Real Madrid home and away this season in the Champions League and they reached the Italian Cup semi-finals.

Juve have been riddled with injuries, Alessandro Del Piero suddenly stopped scoring at the turn of the year yet the run of seven league games without a win is deemed as Ranieri’s fault.

Like when he was dumped by Chelsea, Ranieri has carried himself with great dignity through recent weeks when the media and most of his own fans were calling for his head.

But at Italy’s biggest supported club and the most successful domestically, there is no place to hide.

PHOTO: Juventus coach Claudio Ranieri looks on during thier Italian Serie A soccer match against Lecce at the Olympic stadium in Turin, May 3, 2009. REUTERS/Alessandro Garofalo

After years of racist chanting from the stands, Italian soccer has finally realised it has a problem.

Inter Milan goalscorer Mario Balotelli, born in Palermo and of Ghanaian descent, was racially abused by sections of the Juventus crowd during Saturday’s 1-1 Serie A draw in Turin.

Fans sang “a black Italian does not exist” at the Italy under-21 international.

Maybe it is because the high-profile game was a top-of-the-table clash, maybe it is because Balotelli is Italian, but this time the revulsion felt by fans and the media is much greater than at any time in the past.

Monkey chants towards non-Italian black players are a reasonably regular occurence but clubs normally get just a small fine, like 8,000 euros, from the league. Media coverage is minimal.

This time even some Juve supporters are calling on the authorities to make an example of the Turin club and make them play games behind closed doors at the Stadio Olimpico or force them to move their matches to another stadium.

Making them play at another stadium might not be a huge punishment, though. Despite what Inter and AC Milan think, Juve are Italy’s biggest club and most of their fans are from the rest of the country not Turin. Being forced to play games in the south for example would please many Juve supporters who rarely see their team.

The newspapers expect nothing more than the usual fine but momentum is building with the police involved and Inter president Massimo Moratti saying he would have pulled his team off the pitch if he had been in Turin on Saturday.

Balotelli is a controversial character who likes to wind up opponents and fans but no one deserves the treatment he received.

UPDATE: JUVE MUST PLAY ONE GAME BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

PHOTOS: Inter Milan’s Mario Balotelli (C) celebrates with supporters after scoring against Juventus during their Serie A match in Turin, April 18, 2009. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi

The sight of Serie A sides flopping in the Champions League has become a familiar one and although the three teams eliminated this week were a little unlucky, a mental block against English opposition is developing.

Inter Milan coach Jose Mourinho, who won the trophy with Porto in 2004, was hired in June largely to boost their hopes of challenging Europe’s elite after years of failure.

However, his confident nature and man-management skills can only go so far and he acknowledged that the Italians need something extra if they are to really threaten the continent’s best teams.

The former Chelsea boss talked of his side lacking the necessary “intensity” after being eliminated in the last 16 by holders Manchester United on Wednesday following a 2-0 defeat.

“We need something more to win this competition, but I will talk about this with the club. I will open my heart,” the Portuguese told reporters.

United manager Alex Ferguson was scathing about his side’s first-half performance, but the fact they dispatched the strongest team in Italy with plenty to spare speaks volumes of the widening gulf in class.

“The interesting thing for me is that we played a team close to its maximum potential in terms of their experience and they played to their maximum,” Ferguson told reporters after accusing his players of playing “suicide football”.

“To get through is a big plus because we will be better in the next round, we can play far better than that.” (more…)