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…)

There’s still a long way to go to the final in Rome but from what we saw over the first legs of the opening knock-out round of the Champions League a lot of people will be expecting another all-English affair at the Olympic Stadium.

If you take Mark’s dad as an authority, and I’m sure he knows as much as anyone, serie A sides are unlikely still to be challenging but is there anyone else capable of preventing another Premier League tour match?

Manchester United are actually the most precariously placed of the four English sides. A goalless draw away from home is not a great result, as United will doubtless remember from their trip to the Bernabeu in 2000.

Arsenal and Chelsea had better results at home to Italian sides, winning their home legs 1-0 against, respectively, Roma and Juventus, while Liverpool nicked a great result, 1-0 away to Real Madrid thanks to a late Yossi Benayoun header.

Barcelona should probably go through after salvaging a 1-1 draw away to Lyon but their performance in France will have given rise to more doubts from their fans.

Have Pep Guardiola’s team peaked too early?

Of the rest, Bayern Munich hammered out a reminder of their European glory days by winning 5-0 at Sporting and I guess the Bavarians can’t be discounted but I don’t think any of the other teams, from Panathinaikos to Villarreal, Atletico and Porto, would provide too many problems for United and co.

Anything’s possible, but I’d expect all four English teams to make it through to the quarter-finals and from there, who knows?

But let me know if you think I’m wrong. My predictions usually are…

Kevin Fylan, London

PHOTO: Liverpool’s Yossi Benayoun celebrates his goal during their Champions League win over  Real Madrid at the Bernabeu, Feb. 25, 2009. REUTERS/Juan Medina

Jose Mourinho will clash with old foe Alex Ferguson in the Champions League last 16 with holders Manchester United playing Inter Milan.

It is England v Italy twice more with Juventus coach Claudio Ranieri facing former club Chelsea while Arsenal and Roma, two teams who love to play the beautiful game, also meet.

Real Madrid against Liverpool will also be special for Madrid-born Rafael Benitez. Here’s the draw. What do you make of it?

Chelsea v Juventus

Villarreal v Panathinaikos

Sporting Lisbon v Bayern Munich

Atletico Madrid v Porto

Olympique Lyon v Barcelona

Real Madrid v Liverpool

Arsenal v AS Roma

Inter Milan v Manchester United

There was a lot of fuss about Bayern Munich v Hoffenheim and Chelsea v Arsenal in the last few weeks but for me this weekend offers the best two games in domestic football.

Saturday’s El Clasico between Barcelona and Real Madrid and Sunday’s clash between Juventus and AC Milan both have real tradition and a zest which Europe’s nouveau riche clubs can only dream of.

The game at the Nou Camp has extra spice given it’s Juande Ramos’s first league game in charge of Real while in-form Barca can really surge ahead in the table with a win. 

Juve v Milan is also a big game in terms of the standings. The two sides are joint-second and the winner will become the true rivals to leaders Inter Milan and their recent Serie A dominance. But it has not always been like this, prior to Inter’s three scudettos in a row it was nearly always Juve and Milan battling for the title in the last 20 years. (more…)

One-club players are rare and precious.

The likes of Paolo Maldini, Raul, Steven Gerrard and Paul Scholes might be handsomely paid by their clubs, but the fact they have spurned chances to get even richer elsewhere suggests they share at least some of the fans’ devotion to the colours they wear.

Inter Milan’s Patrick Vieira recognised this recently when talking about his former Juventus team mate Alessandro Del Piero.

“What I like about him, and envy a little, is that he has played all his career for the same team and won everything with that team,” Vieira told La Gazzetta dello Sport.

Indeed, Del Piero has a good claim to being the world’s top one-club man.

Five Serie A titles and a Champions League are part of the 34-year-old’s trophy haul at Juventus. He also holds the Turin club’s record for appearances and goals — he netted his 250th for Juve in Saturday’s 4-0 win at Reggina.

AC Milan’s Maldini has more Serie A and Italy appearances than Del Piero, Real Madrid’s Raul has scored more European goals and both have won more Champions Leagues, as have Scholes and his Manchester United team mate Ryan Giggs.

Del Piero probably trumps them all though because he has a World Cup-winner’s medal in his cabinet.

What’s more, Del Piero gets bonus club-loyalty points because he stuck with Juve when they were relegated for match-fixing in 2006, scoring 21 goals to help them to immediate promotion and finding the net as many times last season to fire them to a third-place finish on their return to the top flight.

Sticklers might argue that, strictly speaking, Del Piero is not a one-club man. He also played for Padova in Serie B before joining Juve in 1993, but I think it would be churlish to count a few seasons outside the big time when he was a teenager (if you’re too rigid Raul would fail the one-club test too as he played for Atletico Madrid’s academy before it was closed and he moved across town).

Nevertheless, my vote does not go to Alex but to another 2006 World Cup winner, AS Roma’s Francesco Totti.

Del Piero is a wonderful player but he has a tendency to blow hot and cold, while Totti has consistently been excellent in Serie A when fit.

And, unlike the other footballers I’ve mentioned, Totti did not have the fortune to start his career at a club regularly vying for domestic and European trophies.

He has less honours to his name, but only because he stayed true to Roma rather than succumbing to the courtship of clubs such as Real and Milan. In my book that sacrifice more than makes up for the European club trophy missing from his CV.

And if Roma are now a force to be reckoned with outside Italy, Totti deserves a large slice of the credit.

What do you think? Who would you give the top one-club player award to? Is there anyone I have overlooked altogether who’s more worthy?

PHOTO: Juve’s Alessandro Del Piero celebrates after scoring as AS Roma’s Francesco Totti watches during their Serie A match in Turin Feb. 16, 2008. REUTERS/Max Rossi

It’s hard to think of two coaches in the world with such an apparent dislike of one another as Inter’s Jose Mourinho and Juve’s Claudio Ranieri.

Even Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger have got on better of late and the only coach to have real gripes with new Argentina boss Diego Maradona is Scotland no. 2 Terry Butcher.

The feud between Mourinho and Ranieri, which comes to the boil in Saturday’s match between Serie A leaders Inter and in-form Juve, originated at Chelsea where the Special One took over from the sacked Italian in 2004 and promptly went and won two Premier League titles.

The usually modest Ranieri feels he deserves more credit for building up the Chelsea team ahead of Mourinho’s arrival (Petr Cech and Arjen Robben for example) but the confident Portuguese is having none of it, saying Ranieri’s English at Chelsea was laughable and implying the 57-year-old is past his sell by date.

Their contrasting styles and the already strong rivalry between the two clubs promises fireworks this weekend, with Juve able to join Inter at the top with a win. ‘Grudge match’ is a horrid cliche, but just this once I think it applies.

Inter v Juve is actually known as the ‘Derby of Italy’ because they have battled against each other for the title so often.

The rivalry is fiercer than Inter v AC Milan in many respects. Remember, Inter were given the title when Juve were stripped of the scudetto and demoted in 2006. Inter then signed Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Patrick Vieira off their rivals to further infuriate fans of the Turin-based club.

Despite talk of the two managers making peace, they will probably end up disliking each other even more after Saturday.

PHOTO: Claudio Ranieri blows a kiss to Chelsea fans knowing his days are numbered at the London club back in May 2004 REUTERS

Italy coach Marcello Lippi doesn’t want him, his predecessor Roberto Donadoni wasn’t keen, but Juventus striker Alessandro Del Piero just keeps on coming up with the goods.

Few visiting players get standing ovations at the Bernabeu, but Il Capitano deserved it after two sublime strikes in Juve’s shock 2-0 win over Real Madrid on Wednesday which sent the in-form Turin club to the Champions League last 16.

Del Piero had already outshone that other great talisman Raul by scoring another beauty in Juve’s 2-1 home win over Real two weeks ago.

He is surely in the best form of his long and successful career, which kicked off when he played in Juve’s 1996 Champions League-winning side.

He is undoubtedly the most famous Italian still playing the game and yet he has only ever been a bit part player for Italy, playing as a substitute for most of their triumphant 2006 World Cup campaign and sneaking into the Euro 2008 squad after finishing top of the Serie A scoring charts last term.

Lippi has said he wants to look at other players during Italy’s 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign, but where will he find better than Ale?

Wednesday’s glorious free kick past Iker Casillas followed another deadball special in last weekend’s 2-0 win over AS Roma.

With Roberto Carlos winding down at Fenerbahce (and never actually that accurate), Ronaldinho feeling his way at AC Milan and David Beckham flitting between clubs, Del Piero in my mind is the best free kick taker in the world. You always think he is going to score or force the keeper into a mighty fine save. 

Many pundits have criticised Del Piero by saying he is now too slow, I have done it myself, but every time he roars back and silences the doubters.

Even Juve fans have been known to knock him, yet this was the man who stuck with the club in their darkest hour when they were demoted to Serie B in 2006 for a match-fixing scandal. He is also Juve’s record goalscorer and appearance holder.

He was not included in this year’s nominations for the Ballon D’Or or FIFA World Player, and surprisingly has never come close to winning either. 

On Sunday Del Piero celebrates his 34th birthday and will play for Juve at struggling Chievo Verona.

The travelling Juve fans should give him a standing ovation of their own.

PHOTO: Juventus striker Alessandro Del Piero celebrates his second goal against Real Madrid during their Champions League match at the Bernabeu, Nov. 5, 2008. REUTERS/Andrea Comas

The press in both Italy and Britain are speculating that Juventus want Liverpool coach Rafael Benitez to replace Claudio Ranieri.

On face value the rumour looks plausible.

Juve have not won in four games and there is talk of dressing room unrest while Benitez has obviously had his run-ins with the bosses at Anfield, which is looking no nearer to demolition and a nearby stadium built.

Looking at the situation closely, however, and the story seems like a tabloid tale on a quiet day.

Yes Juve have not had a great start but Sunday’s 2-1 home defeat by Palermo was only their first loss of the season. The Turin side are also struggling with injuries.

The club hierarchy have fully backed Ranieri while it is an interesting fact that Juve have not sacked any coach since Luis Carniglia back in 1969. Lippi, Deschamps, Capello etc all resigned.

There also seems less reason at the moment for Benitez to quit or be forced out at Liverpool. Fans are actually beginning to believe that this could finally be their year in the Premier League after an exciting start.

Rafa wouldn’t want to drag his Spanish contingent off to Italy just yet.

Amongst all the talk of football and footballers losing touch with the common fan, supporters in Italy are fighting back.

There have been at least four recent incidents where fans have protested against potential signings they did not like. Juve supporters failed to stop Monday’s purchase of Christian Poulsen but did prevent a bid for Inter Milan’s Dejan Stankovic.

Christian Vieri has been abused on his return to Atalanta and Fiorentina fans halted a move for Lazio’s Luciano Zauri.

Read more here.

PHOTO: Christian Poulsen while on national duty with Denmark in 2007. REUTERS/Scanpix Denmark

Juventus are to become the first Italian club to have their stadium sponsored.

The concept is so alien to Italians that Juve had to hold a presentation in Milan this week to explain what it was all about, and to look for sponsors. I went along hoping to speak to the directors about potential transfers but most of my Italian colleagues asked question after question about this strange new marketing trend.

Having attended the first game at the Reebok Stadium in Bolton 11 years ago, I’ve become rather used to the idea and don’t think it differs much to sponsored shirts.

Certainly in the case of Bolton Wanderers, the revenue from the sponsorship deal has gone a long way to helping them stay in the Premier League. Several of Germany’s excellent stadiums built ahead of the 2006 World Cup are sponsored, like Munich’s Allianz Arena, and fans there are generally happy.

But should we be worried about where all this is heading? Does every time we mention the name sound like an advert?

The Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen sounds better than Arena AufSchalke, but do we really want existing stadiums changing their names? Hamburg’s stadium changed sponsors after just six years.

Many basketball and cycling teams in Europe even have sponsors in their name. I don’t think fans will want major soccer clubs to go that far, but it has already been tried with TNS in Wales and others will definitely follow.

Mark Meadows, Reuters Sports Correspondent in Milan