Down to Ten Men

Napoli manager Maurizio Sarri says that his team will try to beat Benfica and not go to Portugal in search of a draw.

After having already secured sufficient points in the group stages, Napoli need only a draw in order to reach the knockout stages of the Champions League.

Roma last lifted the Serie A title in the 2000-01 campaign when Francesco Totti and Gabriel Batistuta were at the height of their powers. The club have been contenders for the crown over the last three seasons, but have been unable to remove the irresistible force of Juventus from top spot.

However, this term Luciano Spalletti’s men are within striking distance of I Bianconeri and have the quality as well as depth to their squad to take the challenge all the way to the end of the season.

After taking over from Frank de Boer, Stefano Pioli has straightaway set the target of finishing in the top three places this season.

The former Lazio manager may have not won any major honour in his managerial career, but he seems to have sufficiently impressed Inter Milan’s current owners to earn a contract until the summer of 2018. The club has already gone through nine different managers in the last six years. Stability is clearly absent at the San Siro, and just like their neighbours, Inter Milan have also been struggling with it comes to the domestic competitions.

Andrea Pirlo has recently released a statement where he said that his time on the Italian national football team is over and it actually has been over for some time, one of the reasons of this is because of his decision to join the MLS and perform in the American League which isn’t as competitive as top European Leagues such as: Premier League, Serie A, La Liga and Bundesliga just to name a few.

The Italian national football team has recently been competing with other national sides and after having battled against: Israel, Spain and Macedonia, Italy are currently positioned at the 2nd spot of group G with 7 points which is the same amount as Spain but the Spanish side have a slight advantage with a better goal difference ratio.

As of 30th September 2016, the lifestyle brand, Diesel, became the official style partner of AC Milan, the highly revered Italian football club.

Diesel, in a partnership that is expected to last for about three years, will see them dressing the Italian football club players off the field.

Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon has been praised by Juventus manager Massimiliano Allegri after the club’s win against Lyon in the Champions League.

This European competition remains as the primary objective for the Italian outfit. They came very close to winning the title a couple of years ago only to be beaten by Barcelona – widely adjudged as the best team in the world in the last decade. As a result, Juventus are very keen on doing well in this Champions League. Unlike in the last few seasons, there is no real favourite for the title since almost every top club has a weakness.