It had never happened in 13 years, or since when, in 1999, UEFA had enlarged the participants of the three major football federations to the Champions League to four, then reduced in the case of Italy to three, by virtue of the German overtaking. But in these 13 years there had always been at least three teams to represent Italy: in the next edition of the Champione there will be only two for the first time, and moreover with very limited ambitions. Milan is officially in a generational turnover crisis and it will certainly not be the signings of Bojan and perhaps De Jong that will make the Rossoneri competitive in the big-eared cup race. Juventus is better listed, but is still looking for a top player of continental level, and in any case it will be difficult to apply for the final victory. Udinese, on the other hand, was eliminated prematurely by Sporting Braga.
Allegri's men should have at least a softer start to the competition, by virtue of their position in the first band in the draw held today at 18 in Montecarlo. Despite the less than brilliant results of the last editions, in fact, Milan is still the team that has won 7 Cups and has participated in 15 editions out of 19 of the current Champions League. Boateng and his companions will therefore avoid top-level teams such as Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern, Chelsea, Manchester United and the still dangerous Porto and Arsenal in the initial round, but despite this there are pitfalls. Mancini's Manchester City, eliminated last year by Napoli, this time does not want to fail at least the qualification for the knockout phase and is in the second tier, therefore "catchable" by both Milan and Juventus, which is only in the third tier (since he has been absent from the competition for 3 years and with poor results also in the Europa League).
In the second tier they are stationed, very dangerous, too Valencia, Zenit St. Petersburg and Benfica. Maybe slightly more affordable, but don't underestimate Shakhtar Donetsk, Dinamo Kiev, Sporting Braga and Schalke 04. The other loose cannon of the Monegasque draw is Carlo Ancelotti's Paris Saint Germain, in the third tier together with the black and whites who therefore will certainly not fly to Paris, nor to Lille, Athens (Olimpiacos), Moscow (Spartak), Istanbul (Galatasaray), Brussels (Anderlecht) and Amsterdam (Ajax). All these goals are possible for Milan, however, which therefore, while avoiding the super bigs, risks a tough group with City and PSG.
In the fourth band they appear three absolute debutants: Malaga seduced and abandoned by the sheiks (but still competitive), Montpellier champions of France, and the Danes of Nordsjaelland, who on paper are proposed as the buffer team of the tournament, but we wouldn't be surprised if in the end the surprise turns out to be. Much more insidious instead, despite the low ranking, the Belarusians of Bate Borisov, Celtic, the Romanians of Cluj, Dinamo Zagreb and especially the double reigning German champions Borussia Dortmund.
In total, 17 federations are represented, Spain and England are the ones with the most formations, both four (for the British even three in the first tier), then come Germany and even France and Portugal better than Italy, with three. But the real risk is not to see Milan and Juventus even protagonists in their groups: the Rossoneri could in fact draw Dinamo Kiev, Anderlecht and Nordsjaelland but also Manchester City, Psg and Borussia. For Juventus, on the other hand, a tough group is already almost a certainty, unless one of Porto and Arsenal comes out of the first pot: very dangerous, but playable.
