UEFA is expected to decide today whether Inter Milan will face action after racist abuse appeared to be directed at Tottenham players in last night’s Europa League tie.

Andre Villas-Boas expects UEFA to take action against Inter Milan after their supporters appeared to racially abuse Tottenham players last night.

Inter 4 Tottenham 1 (AET: 4-4 on agg, Spurs win on away goals)

Inter Milan 4 Tottenham 1 (Agg: 4-4, Spurs win on away goals)

Tottenham 3 Inter 0

Tottenham 3 Inter Milan 0

Inter Milan have been fined €50,000 after a section of fans racially abused AC Milan striker Mario Balotelli during Sunday night’s Milan derby, the Lega Serie A have confirmed.

Inter Milan’s performance in a 4-1 defeat at Fiorentina was “too ugly to be true”, according to Nerazzurri head coach Andrea Stramaccioni.

It was all up with Giovanni Trapattoni after the Germany fiasco, according to his Italian compatriots.

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo matched each other blow for blow at the Nou Camp last night, bagging two goals apiece as Barcelona and Real Madrid battled out an entertaining draw in the first Clasico of the Primera Division season.

Real Madrid reduced the gap at the top of the Primera Division to eight points ahead of next week’s El Clasico as Cristiano Ronaldo’s hat-trick led them to a 5-1 victory over Deportivo La Coruna last night.

Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho admits his side deserved to lose against Sevilla at the weekend as they slipped eight points behind Barcelona in the Primera Division.

Real Madrid registered their first Primera Division victory of the season after a comfortable 3-0 win over Granada at the Bernabeu — but an unhappy Ronaldo suggested all is not well within the camp.

AC Milan have confirmed the signing of Manchester City midfielder Nigel de Jong on a three-year deal.

Lionel Messi scored twice in the last 15 minutes as Barcelona survived a scare against 10-man Osasuna to continue their winning start to the new season.

Spain 4 Italy 0

Just a few short weeks ago — which now feels more like many long years, — Ireland were sitting pretty and serene in their Montecatini base in Tuscany while no more than 30 miles away at their Coverciano training camp, Italy’s footballers were waking up to dawn raids, shock-horror headlines and all the trappings of another explosive calcio scandal.

Spain coach Vicente del Bosque has no regrets over passing up the chance to eliminate Italy from Euro 2012 ahead of his side’s meeting with Cesare Prandelli’s men in Sunday’s final.

Mario Balotelli insists Sunday’s Euro 2012 final will feature the best two teams in the competition.

Not for the first time, Italy have upset the order.

Germany 1 Italy 2

Antonio Cassano’s agent has reassured AC Milan fans the striker will not leave the club this summer.

Italy are deservedly through to the semi-final of the European Championship after a dramatic penalty shoot-out, and how they celebrated after this captivating quarter-final in Kiev.

England 0 Italy 0 (Italy won 4-2 on penalties)

Gary Neville has warned England’s players they risk getting sent off themselves if they try to wind Mario Balotelli up today.

As the dust settles on Ireland’s European championship flop Miguel Delaney looks at the successes and failures in Poland and where Giovanni Trapattoni can go from here.

No points and nobody quite sure where to from here.

And so it ends, not with a bang, but not exactly with a whimper either.

That’s that then.

Spain had some anxious moments, but, in the end, their qualification was rarely in doubt.

Republic of Ireland striker Robbie Keane admitted his side had come up short of the required quality as they ended their Euro 2012 campaign with a 2-0 defeat to Italy tonight.

Italy 2 Republic of Ireland 0

Eight years ago this month, I stood behind the goal with the Swedish fans at Boavista’s Bessa Stadium to watch the match that finished off Giovanni Trapattoni as Italy coach.

Old habits die hard.

Roberto Mancini cannot possibly have imagined he would see this sentence in print; but Mario Balotelli, the man regarded as probably the maddest, baddest and most dangerous man to know in the Premier League, played for Italy against Croatia last night and left many onlookers wondering if he could do with being, well... a bit more nasty.

Italy 1 Croatia 1

Giovanni Trapattoni sidestepped the headlines yesterday by refusing to be drawn on his response to homophobic remarks made by Italian international Antonio Cassano.

Cesare Prandelli has only one decision to make for tonight’s Group C duel with Croatia: does he stick with the front two he picked against Spain or should he give Antonio Di Natale a start?

Italy striker Antonio Cassano has apologised after causing controversy by saying he hoped there were no homosexuals in the national team squad at Euro 2012.

He played no part in the national team’s qualification campaign, but the gifted young attacker was included when Giovanni Trapattoni named his squad for the European Championship finals.

Euro 2012 will be Giovanni Trapattoni’s third time to lead a team at the finals of a major international competition. Paul Kelly looks at the campaigns in which his under-achieving Italy recorded two wins, three draws and two defeats.

Juventus defender Leonardo Bonucci was today included in Italy’s final Euro 2012 squad despite being mentioned in the latest match-fixing investigation to engulf the country.

Italy host Luxembourg in a Euro 2012 warm-up tomorrow in Parma with the country gripped by a new match-fixing scandal.

Italy coach Cesare Prandelli has expressed his faith in controversial Manchester City striker Mario Balotelli.