One year later, Italy is still proud of Europe. Of course, we are no longer at the glories of the 1980s and 1990s when we were the richest on the continent and had the best players in the world. And we won’t be able to repeat the exploit of 2023 with an Italian in each of the three finals.
Five teams in the penultimate act twelve months ago, with the certainty of a Milanese team, which was then Inter, in the last act of the Champions League and the possibility – then vanished – of an Italian derby in the Europa League; three this year with as many Italian coaches on the bench, the confirmations of Roma and Fiorentina in search of an encore and a new chance, thanks also to Atalanta, to win the second most important competition.
De Rossi, Gasperini and Italiano: completely different technicians. The Roma player, who arrived 106 days ago to replace Mourinho, is the youngest and has already amazed everyone by shaping Roma in his image and likeness: always connected head and big heart. The Piedmontese, the second oldest coach in Serie A after Ranieri, transformed the “queen of the provincial teams” into one of the greats of the championship and one of the most feared teams in Europe (Guardiola said that playing against Atalanta is “like going from dentist”). The viola native from Karlsruhe is the most divisive of the three: his football knows no half measures in terms of approval. But he revived a Fiorentina that was sailing in anonymous positions in the standings and brought them one step away from triumph in the Conference.
Atalanta will play in the second European semi-final after the one 36 years ago with the Belgians of Malines. This time the challenge is with the French side Marseille: a painful defeat in 2020 against the French side PSG in the atypical quarter-final of the Champions League in a one-off match in August in which qualification faded due to the comeback suffered in injury time.
Roma are now regulars in the Cup semi-finals: they have reached five since the 2017-18 season, including four in a row, reaching the penultimate chapter of each of the three competitions and managing to lift the Conference trophy in Tirana in 2022. Again once upon a time the obstacle to the final was called Bayer Leverkusen: a year ago Mourinho inflicted the last European defeat on Xabi Alonso’s Germans, new German champions, who boast a streak of 46 matches without defeat (last knockout on 27 May 2023 against Bochum). «Challenge not out of our reach. The first in the house? The attitude and the result you get in the first leg are important”, said De Rossi on the eve of the match.
Fiorentina is called to confirm the feeling of the Italians with the new Conference (two finalists in the first two editions) as well as to avenge the defeat in Prague on 7 June: the obstacle is called Bruges, against Belgian teams the victory only came once (with Genk) in six previous matches.
