Italian stallions: Serie A clubs' renaissance could see them make a clean sweep in Europe

Inter Milan enjoy 2-0 advantage over Benfica going into Wednesday's Champions League quarter-final second leg with Italian clubs still in hunt for all three of Uefa's major trophies

Nicolo Barella celebrates scoring Inter Milan's first goal in their Champions League quarter-final first-leg win over Benfica in Portugal, on April 11, 2023. Reuters

From the perspective of Italy manager Roberto Mancini, these are bittersweet days. The patriot in him enjoys the talk of an improbable Grand Slam, a scenario where, by June, the Italian flag is draped over every significant Uefa trophy.

At the same time, Mancini would like the triple target, very much alive, of Italian clubs making the finals of the Champions League, the Europa League and their infant sibling, the Conference League, to feel … well, to feel a bit more Italian.

The club Mancini long ago guided to the first of the league titles of his managerial career, Inter Milan, can on Wednesday guarantee an Italian presence in the most prestigious of those finals. Should Inter hold on to the lead – 2-0 – they efficiently took away from Lisbon in the first leg of their quarter-final against Benfica, they will meet a fellow Serie A club next.

Mancini would be delighted to see key men from his national squad, winners of the last European Championship such as Nicolo Barella and Alessandro Bastoni, boosted by Inter’s best progress in the competition since they were its last Italian winners in 2010. But he’d be even more thrilled if Inter ever fielded a high-class native Italian striker, a species Mancini is concerned is threatened with extinction.

When Serie A’s dominant presence, in terms of numbers, in these later phases of the European club knockouts is labelled a “renaissance”, Mancini says sceptically: “If clubs like Inter, AC Milan and Napoli were fielding 33 Italian players between them, you could call it a renaissance. But the numbers aren’t even half of that.”

Likewise, when he recalls how important his core of Juventus footballers were in carrying Italy to triumph at Euro 2000 – a Juve hero, Leo Bonucci, scored Italy’s goal in the final against England; Juve players converted two of the three successful penalties in the shoot-out – he can only feel frustrated watching the Old Lady close out a 1-0 lead over Portugal’s Sporting in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final with only two Italians on the pitch.

Still, Juve need only hold that advantage in Lisbon to maintain the Serie A momentum. If Roma can overturn a 1-0 deficit to Feyenoord in Rome, then the Europa League could have an all-Italian final.

On the same night, Fiorentina, where Mancini won his first trophy as a coach – the 2001 Coppa Italia – should comfortably make their way to the last four of the Conference League, which Roma won last season. The Tuscan club lead Lech Poznan 4-1.

To some of 58-year-old Mancini’s generation of Italian greats, surveying this sweep of possibilities provokes a happy nostalgia. You have to rewind almost 30 years to recall a period when Italy was quite so present in the later stages of all Europe’s club competitions.

It was a dominance with deep foundations. In 1992 Mancini was a striker with Sampdoria, not a traditional heavyweight when they reached the European Cup final; the same year Torino reached the final of what was then called the Uefa Cup.

Two seasons later, AC Milan were winning their third European Cup in seven seasons, Inter claiming the Uefa Cup and Parma were in the final of the now-defunct Cup Winners' Cup. That 1994 summer, Italy, with their fleet of Milan defenders and Juventus’s Roberto Baggio as chief creator, lost a World Cup final only on penalties.

The man who managed that Azzurri then, and had previously made Milan exemplars of the club scene, Arrigo Sacchi, welcomes the comparisons. “I do see a real renaissance in Italian football,” Sacchi said, “our best clubs can match anybody’s”.

That raises the issue of how far is the gap between Italy’s very best club domestically and the rest. In Serie A, Napoli are such runaway leaders there is no league ‘title race’ to speak of. Yet the top division has become much more fluid. Barring a catastrophic collapse, Napoli will be the fourth different Italian champion in four years.

Inter, Serie A winners in 2021, are currently not in the top four; Juventus, who won every league title between 2012 and 2020 but who were docked 15 points for financial irregularities earlier this season, sit seventh.

All this variety sits in stark contrast to other major leagues. The Bundesliga has produced the same champion, Bayern for a decade, Paris Saint-Germain have won eight of the last 10 Ligue 1 title, Manchester City four of the last five Premier Leagues.

That last name will be the one Mancini pauses on longest when he wonders how far the so-called Italian renaissance might go. He was once a City manager, too, at a time when they were still developing as a Champions League force. They have grown since.

As long as City, who face Bayern with a 3-0 advantage in their quarter-final second leg on Wednesday, are still in the European Cup, no Italian can dream of a full Grand Slam without a degree of fantasy.