Italian clubs on brink of historic Champions League embarrassment Italian football stands on the brink of a Champions League “debacle” – with the prospect of no Serie A clubs competing in this season’s last 16. Since the reintroduction of the last-16 knockout round to Europe’s showpiece competition in 2003-04, there has always been at least one Italian representative – on 12 occasions in the past 22 years, there have been three. In fact, there has been at least one Italian side in the last 16 of the competition – or first knockout round when it took other formats – every year since 1987-88, when Napoli went out in the first round of the European Cup to Real Madrid. But Inter Milan’s shock play-off exit to Norwegian debutants Bodo/Glimt on Tuesday means either Juventus or Atalanta will ...