Night of verdicts in the Champions League, but also of exams for Italian coaches. Because Europe is calling and our technicians must respond presently, otherwise there will be pain. Roberto Di Matteo knows something about it, who lost the Chelsea bench after the defeat against Juventus. In his place has arrived Rafa Benitez, who will not have the trust of the blue people, but, at least for the moment, has that of Roman Abramovich. The Spaniard will have to beat Nordsjaelland and hope for a defeat by Juve in Donetsk, but we'll talk about that tomorrow. In fact, tonight there are other teams involved in the Champions League roulette.
Among these there is not Milan, whose match against Zenit will be completely irrelevant for the purposes of the standings. If anything, all eyes will be on Luciano Spalletti, another local coach who isn't doing very well. His team is already mathematically eliminated from the Champions League and will try to cling to at least the Europa League, Anderlecht permitting. Too little for an army like Zenit, reinforced with a sumptuous acquisition campaign, which had the most precious diamond in the Hulk (40 million!) But Spalletti can console himself: in Europe there are those who are worse off than him. Watching Carlo Ancelotti and Roberto Mancini is believing.
The current PSG coach is going through a very difficult moment, especially as regards the results at home. The French are fourth in the standings (!), preceded by Lyon, Marseille and St. Etienne, -5 from the top and fresh from elimination from the League Cup. A disaster for those who, last summer, invested dizzying sums to grab Ibrahimovic, Thiago Silva and Lavezzi. The only consolation is the Champions League, where Ancelotti's are already mathematically qualified for the round of XNUMX. Here too, however, there is a drawback: against Porto, in the only "serious" match of the group, PSG lost. This evening at the Parco dei Principi there will be the second leg, which the French will have to win to take first place in the standings. The minimum for those who have spent so much…
The speech obviously also applies to Manchester City and its manager. Mancini is going through a difficult moment, the toughest since he sat on the Citizens bench. The early elimination from the Champions League unleashed the wrath of Sheikh Mansour, fed up with spending tons of millions and finding himself out of Europe that he counts in December. Tonight City will try to win at least the Europa League, but whatever happens it will be a small consolation.
Also noteworthy is the case of Josè Mourinho, increasingly at war with the Real Madrid environment. In the Spanish capital there are many who contest the Portuguese, guilty of already being -11 from Barcelona. In the Champions League, however, things are going better and qualification has been secure for some time, but this is not enough for the fine palate of the Santiago Bernabeu.
Nothing to report instead in group B, with Schalke 04 and Arsenal already qualified and fighting only for supremacy, but here there are no Italian coaches at stake. And given the times that are running, one might say that it's for the best.
