Gian Piero Gasperini lays bare a weakness of Italian teams in Europe

On the eve of the Europa League match between his Roma side and Viktoria Plzen, Gian Piero Gasperini wanted to express his thoughts on the competitiveness of Italian clubs in European cups, also in light of Napoli’s heavy knockout at home to PSV. The Giallorossi coach is, as of this season, the last coach to lead an Italian team, Atalanta, to win a continental trophy, the Europa League 2023-2024.

“It is true that in these competitions we often play against lesser-known teams, but Italian soccer is experiencing great difficulties and despite this I see a little bit’ of presumption, every now and then, when facing these realities – commented the coach from Grugliasco, from this season at Roma -. These are teams that run and on a technical level they are not bad at all”.

Roma began the Europa League with a win and a loss in the first two days, both played against teams from the French league: in the opening round the Giallorossi won 2-1 in Nice, with goals from Ndicka and Mancini before Moffi’s penalty for the Rossoneri, while at home against Lille it ended in a 0-1 defeat, due to Haraldsson’s goal.

In the Europa League there&#8217s also another Italian team, Bologna, which has yet to bring home a success, however: in the first day Vincenzo Italiano&#8217s team (who will be absent due to pneumonia against FCSB) lost 1-0 at home to Aston Villa (decisive goal by McGinn), while in the second game it drew 1-1 at the Dall’Ara against Freiburg (Orsolini’s lead, then equalized by Adamu’s penalty).s