Mourinho's mission has Inter national dimension

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE KNOCKOUT PHASE: Important as the Chelsea versus Inter Milan tie might be for both clubs, Paddy Agnewsays it is arguably even more important for the entire Italian football movement

SO, HOW is Italian football and how does she stand? Perhaps the most accurate answer would be to point out that in the week before the restart of the Champions League, Italian football commentators were concerned with other issues – the violent death of a police inspector at a Serie A game in Sicily three years ago; fan riots at Lazio’s training centre this week; the arrest of four “hooligans” in Naples; skirmishes between police and fans at last weekend’s Serie A games in Florence, Reggio Calabria and Rome; the 14th Serie A coach to be sacked this season (Davide Ballardini of Lazio, replaced by Eddy Reja).

Sad to report, it is a case of (bad) business as usual in the land of Serie A. The financial, social, organisational and ethical problems of Italian football are nothing new. For much of the last decade, Italian football has struggled to deal with an unremitting wave of negative impact stories – match fixing, drug abuse, racism, corruption and even good old-fashioned Mafia infiltration.

Throughout all of this, however, the Italian flag continued to fly high and proud, and for a good reason – the Italians kept on winning. One year after the 2006 “Calciopoli” match-fixing scandal broke, Italian football ruled all the waves – Italy were (still are) reigning World Champions and AC Milan were Champions League holders (for the fifth time in the previous 20 years).

Since then, however, international success has been nada. Italy did not impress much at the European Championships in Austria and Switzerland in 2008 before they were dispatched by eventual champions, Spain. Last summer, Italy were humiliated in a 3-0 drubbing by Brazil in the Confederations Cup in South Africa, not to mention a 1-0 loss to newly-crowned African champions Egypt.

On the Champions League front, the best Italian showing in the last two seasons came from AS Roma who made it to the quarter-finals two years ago, only to be eliminated by Manchester United (3-0 on aggregate).

That was bad but worse came last season when Juventus, Inter Milan and Roma were eliminated at this second round stage by Chelsea, United and Arsenal respectively. If this was not an emphatic assertion of Premiership superiority over Serie A, what else could you call it?

Clearly, it takes no Einstein to conclude that right now Italian football could do with a major international morale boost. In real terms, such a fillip can come from only two immediate sources – the Champions League or the World Cup. Given it would take a very brave man to predict back-to-back World Cup wins for the current Italy (and Irish fans know something about this), then the Champions League it has to be.

With all due respect to AC Milan and Fiorentina, there is little doubt but that the Italian flag-bearer this season is Inter Milan, coached by José Mourinho. In what many see as the outstanding second-round tie, Inter face Chelsea at the San Siro on Wednesday week.

On paper, this tie has everything – a clash between the two strongest club sides in Serie A and the Premiership; the return for the first time of the “Special One” to Stamford Bridge; another post-TerryGate trial of nerves for Chelsea; a “do-or-die” game for Mourinho in his desperate bid to put some European silverware on the Inter sideboard.

Both clubs will not lack for motivation, although probably more in terms of their international standing and record than in terms of future Champions League revenue. Chelsea are clearly fed up with being the “almost-got-there” Champions League team, having made it to four semi-finals and one (losing) final in the last six years. Inter, dominant at home, have yet to deliver the goods in Europe.

Yet, important as the tie might be for both clubs, it is arguably even more important for the entire Italian football movement. If Inter, the strongest team of the moment in Italy, fail again in Europe, then for many it will provide further proof that Serie A is well down the road of (irreversible?) decline.

Yet, from the Italian viewpoint, all is not yet lost. There are plenty of reasons for suggesting that this Inter side might finally perform on a prestigious European stage. Perhaps Chelsea’s Italian manager Carlo Ancelotti offered the best analysis of the tie when telling the daily La Repubblica” the other day: “This will be a very tough game. We couldn’t have got anything worse than them, but then they couldn’t have got anything worse than us”

Given Inter have consistently failed miserably in recent seasons in the Champions League, what is Ancelotti talking about? Simple, it is at the very least arguable that this Inter side is stronger, hungrier and more determined than the Inter sides of the last decade. (Incidentally, Inter have played in the last eight consecutive editions of the Champions League, with their best showing being a semi-final elimination by city cousins AC Milan in 2003).

Inter are in good form, heading for a fifth consecutive Italian title. Following a midweek 1-1 draw with Parma, they lead Serie A by nine points from Roma, with Milan a further two points away in third place. Furthermore, their overall domestic superiority was never more clearly underlined than in the recent city derby in which they comprehensively beat AC Milan 2-0, despite having played with 10 men for 70 minutes. Arguably, more important than the good domestic form is the sort of “do-or-die” spirit shown by Inter in group wins against Dinamo Kiev and Ruben Kazan last autumn.

Those wins suggested not only that Mourinho has instilled huge self-belief into the side but also this season’s new boys – Brazilian Lucio in defence, Brazilian Thiago Motta and Dutchman Wesley Sneijder in midfield, and strikers Argentine Diego Milito and Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o – were all intelligent buys.

And then, of course, there is the Mourinho factor.

It is no secret Mourinho was brought to Inter for one purpose and one only – to win the Champions League, a trophy missing from the Inter sideboard since the mid-1960s when the club was guided by Angelo Moratti, father of current Inter owner, oil tycoon Massimo Moratti. For Mourinho, this is the “big one” – for him, for Inter and indeed for Italian football.

As for the other two Italians, AC Milan and Fiorentina, drawn respectively with Manchester United and Bayern Munich, it is more difficult to make a case.

AC Milan, of course, have that great Champions League record, a point they hammered home when eliminating Man United (5-3 on aggregate) in a semi-final four seasons back. Milan fans would like to believe this team can do it again but recent form suggests otherwise.

In particular, that city derby defeat by Inter underlined the apparent inability of their “Golden Oldies”, Brazilian Ronaldinho and England’s David Beckham, to take the game by the scruff of the neck and run the show.

For different reasons, both men will want to leave that game far behind them – Ronaldinho, ignored again this week by Brazilian coach Carlos Dunga and seemingly destined to watch the World Cup finals on television, has a point to prove whilst Beckham, of course, will be making the most talked about “ex-player” performance of the round when he lines up against his old alma mater.

It will not much help Milan that their brilliant 20-year-old Brazilian striker Pato will be missing, through injury, whilst first-season coach Brazilian Leonardo is about 30 years behind opposite number, Alex Ferguson, when it comes to top-level coaching experience.

As for Fiorentina, it may be that their home and away group wins over Liverpool last autumn were more flattering than a realistic measure or their talent.

With a good goalkeeper in Frenchman Sebastian Frey and journeymen professionals such as striker Alberto Gilardino and attacking midfielders Marco Marchionni and Peruvian Juan Manuel Vargas, Fiorentina have a handy unit but against the side which annihilated Juventus 4-1 in Turin last December, this may be the stop where Fiorentina get off.

As we said before, if the Italian phoenix is about to rise from the ashes, then it is much more likely to be the multi-national Inter Milan phoenix, ironically led by an eclectic Portuguese maestro who spends much of his public time taking Italy and Italians to task for their negative attitudes.