February 7, 2012  Print Email | England 3-0 Italy as Premiership shows power
The chance to gloat
Posted by Derek Wilson at 09:28 AM GMT on Mar 12, 2009 | WHEN MAX Tonetto blazed his penalty high into the Rome sky against Arsenal, the thoughts going through his mind probably didn't extend to the Premiership's clear domination of Serie A in the knockout round.
But the consideration afforded to the mid-week result of the Premiership beating Serie A 3-0 in matches won is going to be considerable in both England and Italy.
For supporters of the Premiership, the chance to gloat is one not to miss – and after all, they have irrefutable proof that their league is presently superior.
Meanwhile in Italy, their strong and proud football culture will have to be gently talked in from the window ledge as it thinks of ending it all because of this latest fit of depression.
Italian football is presently in a huge slump and it is alarming to see how far it has fallen not just since the World Cup win of 2006 but the World Cup they themselves hosted in 1990.
At that point Italian stadiums were so far ahead of grounds in England it was embarrassing to make a comparison.
Now it is the huge bowls in Italy which are crumbling and dated while the new constructions in England are among the best in the world.
The Italian fans are still known for their hooliganism and battling with police while Serie A this season has witnessed many games in which visiting fans were simply banned from travelling due to safety concerns.
In England the huge price increases since all-seater stadiums were built may be cause for concern but it is undeniable they have played a part in ridding the game of its problem element.
Even the calciopoli scandal, possibly Italy's lowest ebb in recent years, was somehow turned into a positive as a 'year zero' was declared giving referees, clubs and fans a chance to move on from previous corruption.
But as glaring mistakes are still made, the resentment and accusations have returned as strong as ever before. However, the ancient stadiums, violence outside the ground and perennial complaints about refereeing wouldn't seem so bad if the players were producing the goods on the pitch.
 Juventus lost 3-2 to Chelsea over two games and it is the Bianconeri who can make the biggest case to be excluded from sharing in Italy's shame.
Claudio Ranieri may have cited the first leg as where the tie was lost but the contest was still levelled after Vincenzo Iaquinta's, seen with the football here, goal in Turin.
Pavel Nedved's injury meant that Juventus were playing without a single first choice midfielder and that was probably the decisive factor in Chelsea progressing.
Roma may point out that they took Arsenal all the way to penalties and only lost out in that lottery method rather than genuine end to end football.
But that argument is weakened by the fact they were destroyed by an excellent Arsenal performance in London and were lucky to escape with only a narrow defeat.
Arsenal should have been home and dry before arriving in Rome and even when they played below themselves they still did enough progress.
Roma have also been hit by injury but Arsenal had plenty of problems of their own going into the second leg so that excuse can be dismissed as well.
Rightly or wrongly, the majority of the responsibility will be placed at the feet of Jose Mourinho and his Inter Milan team.
Inter have been clearly the best side in Italy over the last few years and replaced Roberto Mancini with Mourinho precisely to gain more success in Europe.
Instead Mourinho couldn't even make the quarter finals and fell at the same level as his predecessor.
It could be acknowledged that Manchester United are probably the best team in Europe but even that won't cut the mustard in Italy.
Not only are Inter a club capable of being the best themselves but they are to blame for their hard draw due to sloppy performances in the group stage.
In looking at their problems, the simple solution for the Italians will be to point to money.
The Premiership makes way more than Serie A and while Italy may still proudly look to their stronger national team, club football is now an inter-continental game and the best players follow the cash.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic may earn millions but yet again he was poor on the big stage – he compared poorly to United's stars despite the occasional pretty pass.
After the match he commented: "I gave my all, but it wasn’t enough."
That phrase applies to more than just him this morning.
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