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Is the Italian Serie A back to being a leading light in European football? Here are three reasons why the answer is yes.
It would be hard to argue against the massive improvement in Serie A football after watching the 2022/23 season, as Italian teams continue to have impressive continental achievements.
Roma reached their second consecutive European final by beating Bayer Leverkusen in the UEFA Europa League semifinal after reaching the UEFA Europa Conference League final in 2022.
However, they are not the only side from the Italian top flight to take Europe by storm this season, leading many to believe that the Serie A is truly back to being one of the best leagues in the world again.
Here are three reasons why that belief is spot on:
Serie A teams reach record European quarterfinals numbers
The extent of Serie A’s dominance in Europe this season first started becoming obvious when six Italian teams reached the quarterfinals of the continental cups, with Napoli, Inter, and AC Milan all reaching the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League.
Meanwhile, Juventus and Roma reached the quarterfinals of the Europa League, and Fiorentina also reached the last eight of the UEFA Europa Conference League.
It was the first time in 32 years that this many Italian teams made a run this deep into continental competitions, and people started to sit up to the quality of the Serie A teams in this season’s competition.
Serie A teams dominate European semifinals
Of the six Italian teams in the quarterfinals, only one was knocked out of any of the three competitions, and that was Napoli, knocked out by another Italian team, AC Milan, who capitalised on the Partenopei being without talisman Victor Osimhen in the first leg of their tie to secure a 2-1 aggregate win.
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06:46 - 19.05.2023
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All other Italian teams scaled over their quarterfinal hurdles, as the 2022/23 campaign also saw five Serie A teams make the semifinals of continental competitions for the first time in the league’s history.
Inter, AC Milan, Juventus, Roma, and Fiorentina all made it to the semifinals of their respective competitions, writing their names forever in Serie A folklore.
Serie A teams make history with European finals appearance
In the European semifinals, Juventus were the only Italian side to lose to a non-Serie A team as they succumbed to the Europa League heritage of Sevilla, who beat them in extra time to reach their seventh final in the competition.
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12:16 - 14.05.2023
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The only other Italian team that failed to reach a final were AC Milan, who lost a tense semifinal to neighbours Inter.
Inter, Roma, and Fiorentina all made their way to the finals of the UEFA Champions League, Europa League, and Europa Conference League, making Italy the first country to have representatives in the three tiers of European competitions for the first time since the UECL was introduced.
It was also the first time that three Italian teams reached continental finals since the 1997/98 season, with Inter the only constant team in the trios.
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