José Mourinho was the last coach to win a European competition with an Italian club and tonight Serie A relies on him again to deliver success in Europe after recent disappointments and embarrassments.

The Special One completed a treble with Inter in 2010, winning the Champions League Final against Bayern Munich at the Santiago Bernabeu. The Nerazzurri hadn’t triumphed in Europe’s elite competition for 43 years.

On the other hand, Roma have only won the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1960-61 and hadn’t qualified for a European Final in 31 years, when Ottavio Bianchi’s side lost the UEFA Cup Final against Giovanni Trapattoni’s Inter.

Italian football has declined during the last decade. La Nazionale hasn’t played a World Cup knock-out game since 2006 and has failed to qualify for the most important competition in the game twice in a row.

Roberto Mancini’s boys woke up from the nightmare by winning the Euros last summer, but the bad dream continued eight months later when the Azzurri lost to North Macedonia, failing to qualify for Qatar 2022.

Mourinho’s Inter was the last Italian club to win a continental trophy 12 years ago and, since then, Juventus have obtained the best results in Europe, reaching the Champions League Final twice, in 2015 and 2017, under Max Allegri. Tonight, the Special One is once again in charge of rescuing Italian football. As La Gazzetta dello Sport put it, he must ‘take care of it.’

The Conference League may only be the third European competition for importance, but bringing the trophy to Italy would be a decent step forward for Calcio and a historic milestone for the Giallorossi.

13 thought on “Conference League Final: Italian football begging Mourinho again”
  1. Having an Italian team win a European competition again would be a great. I love Juve but in Europe I cheer for Calcio. Forza Roma!

  2. A win tonight won’t “rescue Italian football” at all.

    It won’t even paper over the grand canyon-sized cracks of Italian football.

    Roma are only the 4th Serie A finalist (3rd team) in a European competition from the 54 spots available since 2010. A truly shocking stat. And the three before all lost their finals.

    Spain have filled 18 finals’ spots since then, England 15, Germany 6, Portugal 4, Italy 4, France 2, Holland 2, Ukraine/Scotland 1 each.

    There’s so much wrong with Italian football before these trends can be fixed.

  3. Begging??? 😂😂😂😂 Anyone who isn’t a Romanista wants Feyenoord to lose. What are you talking about?

  4. Italian club teams don’t represent Italian football per se. Similarly, Liverpool or Real Madrid don’t represent English or Spanish football-not with so many foreign players playing for these clubs. In years gone by, yes, one could make that claim, but no more.

    The only team that represents Italian football is the national team. So, in that respect, yes, Italian football has declined, European Cup notwithstanding. I mean, the Dutch football league or the Portuguese league aren’t what they use to be-remember the likes of Ajax, Feynoord, or Benfica in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Yet, their national teams remain pretty strong, with Portugal winning the 2016 euro, and Holland reaching the 2010 world cup final and the 2014 world cup semi finals-beating Brazil in Brazil 3-0 for third spot. Both teams have qualified for Qatar. So its the national team that counts if we want to talk about who or what represents the status of the game in Italy or anywhere else.#

    J0jo, as for football in Europe is not football without a club from Italy, well, as an Italy fan I understand that, but I’m sure the rest of Europe doesn’t believe that.

  5. Roma is lucky to have José who knows how to get the best performance from average players just he has now at Roma, he had with Porto FC shocked UEFA & Europa competitions.

    The overall result is telling in the sense that José with a crop of young players averagely if you compare with the likes of Inter, Juve or AC Milan is indicative that the future of this Roma squadra is promising. We are talking of a team with only two players who have tasted European competitions; Mihki & Tammy. The bulk of this young players haven’t won anything in their professional football career.

    So respect José for his achievements and contributions to Italian football especially in context of spotlighting Italian league as a force to be recon with in European football.

    With a European third tier trophy 🏆 in their kitty Roma is poise for better day in both Italian & Europa league football.

    Respect José Mourinho for his results oriented engagements. Forza Roma, Daje José 🟡🔴💪🏆

  6. I love Jose, he’s a great coach, always result oriented. He won trophy with every club, except Tottenham because he was sacked two days before a final match. Kudo’s to Jose

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Tickets Kit Collector