Only Atalanta made the Champions League last 16. But is Serie A really that bad?
“The shock value is notable. The Serie A champions not making it through the Champions League league phase. The current best in class and league leaders by 10 points going out to Bodo/Glimt. Two teams exiting in the play-off round this season. Three last season. Eliminations at the hands of Belgians and the Dutch in 2025, Norwegians and Turks in 2026. Discarded players like Ivan Perisic, Noa Lang, Victor Osimhen and Jens Petter Hauge coming back to haunt their old league. Headlines calling it a “disaster”. Talk show hosts making sensationalist claims about Bodo/Glimt’s payroll being the equivalent of Catania, Salernitana, Vicenza and Benevento’s in Italy’s third division. The sheer embarrassment of it. A country’s anxieties stoked ahead of the national team’s own play-off against Northern Ireland next month, when the risk of missing out on another World Cup, the third in a row, hangs heavy once again. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
Champions League knockouts: 16 teams remain, all-English ties loom in latter stages
“An entertaining Champions League play-off round is complete, with last year’s runners-up Inter comprehensively beaten by Norwegian side Bodo/Glimt in one of the tournament’s biggest shocks for several years. Juventus’ task — trailing 5-2 from their first leg against Galatasary — was even steeper. … Newcastle United ensured that six English teams will be in the last 16. Anthony Gordon scored four goals in one half in the first leg as they cruised past Qarabag of Azerbaijan, clocking up the furthest competitive away trip an English side has ever made in the process. …”
NY Times/The Athletic