There was a time when the UEFA Cup was “the” Italian team competition. An Italian team would win it or would at least get to the semi-final. Unfortunately in recent years when it switched to a group stage format Italian clubs haven’t been as successful, and see it as a nuisance or a second rate competition. Fiorentina came close last season, but realistically I didn’t see an Italian team winning this year. In the Round of 32, we had all 4 Italian teams still in fighting for UEFA Cup glory, but in the Round of 16 only one team, Udinese, will be flying the Italian flag. There was a point in time today when it looked as if all the Italian teams would qualify, but in the end only one made it.

Sampdoria were out early in the day as they fell 2-0 to Metalist away without Antonio Cassano and Angelo Palombo. Nobody in the Sampdoria camp will admit it, but they are pleased to have been knocked out as they no longer have another competition to worry about and can focus solely on doing well in Serie A (and the Coppa Italia semi-final vs. Inter).

Milan drew 1-1 away at Werder Bremen and needed to win or tie 0-0 to go through. A scoring draw more than 1-1 would’ve seen Milan eliminated. Milan went 2-0 up after Andrea Pirlo scored a penalty and Pato scored a beautiful effort from distance. However in the second half Milan gave up their lead on two similar goals. Both goals came from Claudio Pizarro, and both goals were scored on a header (Milan has had difficulty dealing with high balls all season). Milan tried to push for the win but it was too late and now they face the reality of going another season completely trophy-less, as they only have the Scudetto to aim for.

Fiorentina fell 1-0 at home at Ajax and needed to win at the Amsterdam Arena to go through. The Viola showed great spirit and attacked the Dutch side from the start, and found a breakthrough in the second half when Alberto Gilardino finished an Adrian Mutu assist. Fiorentina pressed forward for another, and just when it looked like the game would be going to extra time, a defensive error allowed Leonardo to score for Marco Van Basten’s side and triumph 2-1 on aggregate. I imagine Prandelli will have something to say to his defense about that late equalizer in the locker room. And again, no one will admit it, but this elimination could be another blessing in disguise for the Viola who can concentrate fully on snatching the 4th Champions League place from Roma and Genoa.

Udinese were up against Polish side Lech Poznan at home after drawing 2-2 away in Poland. The tie was in Udinese’s hands, as a simple 0-0 or a win or even a 1-1 would put them through. Lech scored first after 12 minutes and it wasn’t looking good for the Friuliani but they drew level in the second half with Simone Pepe. The 1-1 was enough to see them through, but Antonio Di Natale made sure of it in second half stoppage time with a goal to make it 2-1. Udinese will now face a tough task in the Round of 16, as they have to take on Champions League drop-outs and last year’s UEFA Cup winner Zenit St. Petersburg.

Often we always find ourselves arguing with other people about which league is the best in the world. Everyone has their own opinion, whether it’s the English Premier League, Serie A, or La Liga. Well, even though we know this won’t tell us 100% which league is the best, all three Italian teams have been paired with English opposition in the Round of 16 in the Champions League. Draw results (as well as UEFA Cup) after the jump.

With Chelsea finishing second in their group, Juventus faced the risk of drawing them, and that’s exactly what they did. This makes for a nice storyline, as Claudio Ranieri goes back to Stamford Bridge where he was replaced by Jose Mourinho after taking Chelsea to second place and the semi-final of the Champions League. Now he has a chance to prove a point to Mr. Abramovich and knock Chelsea out of Europe.

Inter knew they were going to have to face tough opposition by finishing second in their group. And they drew last year’s champions Manchester United. Jose Mourinho knows Manchester United well after his time with Chelsea, so maybe he has some tricks up his sleeve to defeat Sir Alex Ferguson’s side and continue the Nerazzurri’s European dream.

Roma finished first in their group for the first time in their history. They were hoping for maybe a break in the Round of 16 (Totti even said in an interview he would not like to face Arsenal) but the soccer gods said that the Giallorossi will travel to the Emirates and take on the Gunners. Arsenal play a similar fast-paced style as Roma does and this should be an interesting encounter.

And the best news for Italian soccer fans about all three Italian teams drawing English sides is: you have a great chance of watching your team on ESPN! All they show are games featuring Manchester United, Chelsea, and Liverpool, so your in luck!

Full draw:
Chelsea v Juventus
Villarreal v Panathinaikos
Sporting v Bayern Munich
Atletico Madrid v Porto
Lyon v Barcelona
Real Madrid v Liverpool
Arsenal v Roma
Inter v Manchester United

UEFA CUP

In the UEFA Cup, Fiorentina and Milan were handed tricky ties while Sampdoria and Udinese were left off the hook for now.

Milan, having faced German opposition in the group stage (Wolfsburg), finished second in the group and it has come back to bite them. They have to face a Champions League drop-out and have to take a trip to Germany and play Werder Bremen. It will be a tough encounter, and Milan can’t afford to play like they did in the group stage.

Fiorentina reached the UEFA Cup semi-final last year but lost to Rangers. This year they will try to impress in the UEFA Cup again after their Champions League adventure didn’t go so well. They have been handed storied Dutch club Ajax. They aren’t the force they once were, but they are still a tough team and La Viola will have to be at their best to knock off Van Basten’s side.

Udinese have been the best Italian team in the UEFA Cup so far, finishing on top of their group with 9 points. That means they face a third placed UEFA Cup team, and have been paired with Poland’s Lech Poznan. If they get out of their slump and play like they did in the beginning of the season the Friuliani have a good chance.

Sampdoria made it through to the Round of 32 at the last minute, defeating Spanish powerhouse Sevilla 1-0 yesterday in a must-win encounter. They have been handed Ukranian’s Metalist, who were the surprise of their group, finishing first in a group with Hertha Berlin, Galatasaray, and Olympiakos. If Sampdoria can get it together they could surprise.

Full draw:
PSG v Wolfsburg
FC Copenhagen v Manchester City
NEC v Hamburg
Sampdoria v Metalist
Braga v Standard Liege
Aston Villa v CSKA Moscow
Lech Poznan v Udinese
Olympiacos v St Etienne
Fiorentina v Ajax
Aalborg v Deportivo
Werder Bremen v Milan
Bordeaux v Galatasaray
Dinamo Kiev v Valencia
Zenit v Stuttgart
Marseille v Twente
Shakhtar v Tottenham

Happy Thanksgiving (or Tacchino Day) to all the Italy Offside readers! Enjoy your day and eat lots of food! I tried to find a picture of an Italian turkey, this the best I could do (or google image search could do), a turkey with the Italian name for turkey next to it.

This now leads me to my bad Italian calcio Thanksgiving joke:

Which Italian soccer player’s favorite holiday is Thanksgiving? (answer after the jump)

Alessio Tacchinardi! Get it? Tacchino, Tacchinardi? I’m sorry I know it was terrible.

By the way if you get bored today during Thanksgiving dinner and don’t want to watch/don’t like the NFL, two Italian clubs are in action in the UEFA Cup and both are very interesting games:

Milan are in England and take on Portsmouth at Fratton Park.

Sampdoria take on Bundesliga side Stuttgart at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris.

Both should be very interesting but they won’t be on tv so you’ll have to get a stream.
Check here for streams: www.myp2p.eu

After hearing news that Zenit St. Petersburg had demolished Bayern Munich 4-0, La Viola had to like their chances if they reached the final. However, they could not surpass the final hurdle. Fiorentina quite simply dominated the game (15 shots on goal), but they could not finish for anything. Rangers sat back for 120 minutes and absorbed the Fiorentina pressure, but La Viola could not get the ball past goalkeeper Neil Alexander.

Here’s the game summary:

First Half: Fiorentina dominates, can’t finish. Rangers sit back and defend.

Second Half: Fiorentina dominates, can’t finish. Bobo Vieri comes on, he can’t finish. Rangers sit back and defend.

Extra Time: Fiorentina dominates, can’t finish. Bobo Vieri still can’t finish. Rangers sit back and defend, Cousin gets a red card for headbutting (it was more of a “head-touch”) Liverani.

Then it came to penalties. Barry Ferguson stepped up and Frey made an awesome save, and it looked like it would be Fiorentina’s day to triumph again. Kuzmanovic stepped up and cooly slotted home. Rangers next kicker (I think Whitaker) scored to make it 1-1. Montolivo stepped up and fired it home to make it 2-1. Rangers next kicker (probably Papac) stepped up and put off Frey, making it 2-2. Liverani stepped up and hit it low to the right, and Alexander saved it. Hemdani then made it 3-2 for Rangers. Bobo Vieri then stepped up. Bobo, who almost always just rockets his penalties into the upper corner, attempted to do the same this time around, but he blasted it over the bar. Nacho Novo then stepped up for the win, and he scored to send Rangers to the UEFA Cup Final. Maybe Mutu was the next in line to take one, but I really wondered why he didn’t step up to take a penalty.

After Novo’s penalty, Fiorentina’s players were distraught. Kuzmanovic put his shirt over his head and shed some tears. Frey took off his gloves and tossed them angrily to the ground. Vieri just put his head down and looked like he would shed some tears as well.

It was a rough way for La Viola to go out of Europe, but this is what we call in Italian “La Dura Legge del Gol” (the hard rule of the goal). You can have all the possession in the world, but if you don’t score you can’t win. And that’s what happened tonight.

Now Fiorentina will look to concentrate on qualifying for 4th place in these last 3 games. If they miss out on that as well, it would really be a disappointing end to the season for Prandelli’s men.

Fiorentina-Rangers 0-0 (2-4 on PKs)

Fiorentina: Frey; Jorgensen, Ujfalusi, Gamberini, Gobbi; Liverani, Donadel (Kuzmanovic 41), Montolivo; Santana (Semioli 94), Pazzini (Vieri 78), Mutu

Rangers: Alexander; Broadfoot, Weir, Cuellar, Papac; Novo, Hemdani, Thomson, Davis (Novo 81), Ferguson; Darcheville (Cousin 64)

• Fiorentina have drawn Dutch boys PSV, and may well be the favorites to make it to the final, along with this guy……..

(Please come back.)

Strolled in casually around the 80th minute and didn’t realize I still had about a third of the game in front of me. Seb Frey, beast that he is, made a rare mistake and allowed for Andy Johnson, who looks like something of a slimy fetus who was left out in the sun too long, to score the first off of his face and then Mikel Arteta, who is still on the blue side of Liverpool for god knows what reason, put it just in the right spot for the second. In fairness to Frey, the British navy could’ve docked their entire fleet in the space Arteta was given to run with the ball before his goal. And then, Roberto Mancini ran out onto the pitch and said that he’d be signing for Evertonia as a player-coach in the upcoming season.

So tied 2-2 the game headed to extras, where Fiorentina looked fairly frazzled, and lashed out with a clinic on committing fouls in volume. Favorite moment was when Martin Jorgenson got kicked in the giblets, and was then handed a yellow for being late in getting his giblets kicked. Give the guy a break, would ya? A whole lot of pushing back and forth and they were headed to penos. Roll call:

Gravesen: Fired hard, threatened the crowd with one finger. 1-0
Giampaolo: Solid to the left, just off Howard’s fingers. 1-1
Yakubu: Way too nonchalant, flicked it off the post, still 1-1.
Montolivo: High and straight, looked like he’d just maybe soiled himself afterwards. No celebration. 1-2.
Arteta: The pseudo-spoon up the middle. 2-2.
Osvaldo: Pulls out the dipsy-do, hop-a-roo on his way to a weird penalty. 2-3.
Jagielka: Frey makes a huge save on the ball to the left, essentially clinching matters. enough can’t be said about the guy. 2-3.
Santana: 2-4, and that’s all she wrote.

Then the Viola got into a fight with the stewards and planned for the final 8 in the UEFA Cup.

From the sound of reports, the match was a bit ragged, with the Viola having an early penalty shout denied and Franco Semioli and Giampaolo Pazzini failing to make the most of first-half chances. The Viola also had issue with the referee on several occasions, including a harsh offside call that wiped out a goal, and a second possibly penalty. Eventually, though, they broke through when Pazzini was brought down in the area for the second time, and this time was awarded a PK. Adrian Mutu put it away with a sick chip, and the Viola went into halftime up 1-0.

In the second half, Fiorentina came out lively and again had the best of the chances but failed to capitalize, falling victim to a questionable offside call and poor finishing by Massimo Gobbi and, eventually, Boleslav made them pay. The tying goal came on the hour mark from Jan Rajnoch, whose shot from distance was seen late by Cristiano Lupatelli, and he could do nothing with it. (Oh, Sebastian Frey, how we miss you.) Despite knowing a draw would see his team through, Cesare Prandelli went for the win, throwing on Bobo Vieri for the last half hour and, within five minutes, the Old Man had put Fiorentina back on top with his stellar left foot. He almost got another just a few minutes later but his effort went over, and the Viola settled for the 2-1 win.

In today’s draw for the round of 32, Fiorentina drew Norweigian side Rosenborg, who you may remember from their scoreless draw with Chelsea and pair of 2-0 wins over Valencia as they finished third in Champions League Group B. They may only be fifth in the Eliteserien right now but, yeah — not such an easy draw. If the Viola manage to beat Rosenborg (the match are February 13/14, and February 21), they’ll face the winner of SK Brann v. Everton.

The first half was reported a lively one with both teams threatening; the Viola opened the scoring on the half hour mark through Pablo Daniel Osvaldo, who put strike partner Bobo Vieri’s accurate through pass past the hesitant Marcelo Moretto in the AEK goal. Shortly thereafter, though, the Greeks were level, thanks to an own goal by little used defender Federico Balzaretti. AEK striker Julio Cesar (not, sadly, the Inter keeper) was a constant threat to the visitors, but both Zdravko Kuzmanovic and Vieri (who had a goal ruled out for offside late in the half) had good chances before the halftime whistle blew.

The second half started as the first had ended, and Osvaldo was instantly in on goal, only to scuff his shot and have it saved by Moretto. The little semi-Italian had several more chances to restore Fiorentina’s lead as the half wore on, but the AEK keeper was equal to the task and, gradually, the energy went out of the game, as both teams appeared to settle for a draw. (Bobo, by the way, was voted MOTM by the users of UEFA.com. The old man went 87 minutes — his longest appearance of the season — and created what sound like countless chances for Osvaldo. That’s what I’m talkin’ about.)

The result leaves the Viola one point ahead of the idle Villarreal and, as I said this morning, they’re going to have to work awfully hard not to move on to the round of 32.

That said, AEK are one of the stronger teams in the group, and the Viola are probably quite fragile right now, having traveled to Greece immediately after attending Manuela Pradelli’s funeral yesterday. The latest reports suggest that Cesare Prandelli will, in fact, be on the bench for today’s match, even though assistant Gabriele Pin will take charge of the team. Prandelli’s presence, obviously, would dramatically increase the importance of the match for the visitors, and they will undoubtedly go out wanting to get a win for him, pressure that often causes teams to crumble.

In practical terms, Fiorentina are missing several players due to injury, including Adrian Mutu, who is still fighting to be fit for Sunday’s crucial meeting with Inter, Mario Santana, who has been healthy for about 20 minutes so far this season, and Tomas Ujfalusi. It’s expected that Pin will start Prandelli’s usual Cup side, which means Bobo Vieri will lead in the line in place of Giampaolo Pazzini, probably supported by recent Azzurrini debutant Pablo Daniel Osvaldo on one side and the tireless Franco Semioli on the other.

The Greeks, apparently, have no injuries whatsoever, while means they’ve not been to Rome lately, or if they have, definitely didn’t drink the water there. AEK are currently third in the Group C table having played only one match to Fiorentina’s two; that one match was a 1-1 draw with Elfsborg, the side the Viola demolished 6-1 last time out.

After the half, though, the match quieted down, and Milan appeared happy to take the single point that would see them through. Benfica, though, needed a win and kept pressing forward through ex-Milan man Rui Costa, and Fiorentina oldboy Nuno Gomes, whose form this season has been all over the place, but who apparently woke up in a big way tonight, at least for a little while. The hosts failed to break through against the Milan defense — reinforced at half by the addition of Paolo Maldini — and the visitors even threatened to steal the win through the lively Kaka, but in the end it finished 1-1, and Milan are on their way to the knockout stages. They might, however, be heading home with a couple of new injury problems: Alessandro Nesta twisted a knee late in the match but stayed on, while Ronaldo stopped warming up in the second half to get treatment on his knee. Yikes.

Back home in Italy, Lazio basically needed a win over Olympiacos to keep their hopes of advancement alive, and things started out well for them, with Tommaso Rocchi and Valon Behrami both passing late fitness tests to start the match. Lazio even went ahead on the half-hour, albeit after the ball had apparently already gone over the touchline before Rocchi played his pass. The lineman missed it, though, so Goran Pandev’s finish stood. Before the half, though, the suddenly eager Greeks pulled level and, despite Lazio’s growing domination of the match, went ahead for good in the 64th minute through substitute — and former Lazio striker — Darko Kovačević. Lazio threatened in the dying stages of the match, but Olympiacos’ luck and their own ancient keeper, Euro 2004 hero Antonios Nikopolidis were up to the task, and the Roman side’s Champions League dream is all but over. There are about a million scenarios for Group C, but Lazio need three points in Madrid on Matchday 6 to get into the UEFA Cup put themselves in position to do move on, whether it’s to the UEFA Cup or the knockout stages.

(Thanks to Jan for sorting me out on Lazio’s situation.)