European troubles worry Italians

IT WAS a good week to be German, less enjoyable for the Italians.

Bayern Munich's win against Juventus was important not just for the result but for the way they controlled the game against a side that looked much less dominant in the absence of Patrick Vieira.

It was a win that could have a real impact on Bayern's future. With captain Michael Ballack weighing up his options, it was the ideal time to beat the champions of Italy. Ballack's motive for leaving would not be money, but rather the chance of winning the Champions League elsewhere, most likely England or Spain.

His most likely destination remains Manchester United, although Real Madrid have still to find a player to replace Claude Makelele in midfield.

But it is not just Ballack whose contract is running out at Bayern. Surprisingly, there are no fewer than 10 players at the club with contracts ending next summer. Most of them are veterans, like Oliver Kahn and Jens Jeremies, but the list also includes Sebastian Deisler, Roque Santa Cruz and Zé Roberto.

In fact there is a remarkable range of top players who could shortly become available on free transfers, including the Ajax full-backs Trabelsi and Maxwell, Madrid keeper Iker Casillas and Inter midfielder Cristiano Zanetti (not to mention Roma's Antonio Cassano).

Italian results in the Champions League away defeats for Juventus and Inter (against Porto), home draws at home for Milan and Udinese raised some questions about the quality of their defending.

At the very start of the season, Fabio Cannavaro, defensive pillar for both Juventus and the national team, made some sharp comments about the coaching of defenders in Italy: "Today I see so many defenders watching the ball rather than the man. But it's the man that's dangerous: that's who scores the goals. Young players are only taught zonal marking, there is too much emphasis on tactical moves and they neglect the fundamentals of man marking".

Cannavaro's remarks went almost unnoticed, yet goals conceded this week by Inter, Udinese, and indeed Juventus all resulted from players losing their bearings in the six-yard box.

Italian journalists have been pointing to the number of goals scored in Serie A these days as evidence that Italian football is now more exciting than the Premiership. But part of this may be due to a decline in standards.

It is notable that several leading Italian clubs are relying on defenders who would be considered of pensionable age in the Premiership. Paolo Maldini is 37, and both Alessandro Costacurta (still in the Milan squad) and Nestor Sensini at Udinese are 39.

ITALIAN football has always had a greater respect for experience, but the dearth of top-class young defenders is obvious.

While Juventus, alone in Europe, have maintained their winning run in the league, this has been a week of sackcloth and ashes at other clubs.

First Adriano apologised to his Inter team-mates for his late return from Brazil and urged the club to fine him. It was a statement that impressed the newspapers, but not Juan Sebastian Veron, who stated publicly that Adriano had shown a lack of respect and team spirit by his actions (incidentally this is the same Veron who spent much of his year at Chelsea being rehabilitated from a niggling injury at home in Argentina).

Then Inter manager Roberto Mancini decided to apologise for picking the wrong formation against Porto. "We should have played with two strikers" he said as opposed to the 4-5-1 used for most of the match.

This statement was received with some scepticism, the journalists pointing out that, irrespective of the formation, you have a problem when three of your midfield players go missing the three in this case being Luis Figo, Santiago Solari (a shadow of the player he was at Real Madrid) and Juan Sebastian Veron.

Finally, there was the strange affair of the two Udinese strikers David Di Michele and Antonio Di Natale. Di Michele, who still has ambitions to make Italy's World Cup squad, was subbed in the Champions League game against Werder Bremen. Leaving the pitch, he pointedly ignored both his manager and replacement (Di Natale), flung his jacket off and launched a violent kick at the dugout, which was about as effective as anything he'd tried while on the pitch. Minutes later Di Natale scored the equaliser, thus earning Udinese a valuable point.

Ignoring the congratulations of his team-mates, he then raced away from the goal towards the bench, finger aloft, and shouting a word which even the poorest lip-reader could decipher, expressing some doubts about Di Michele's legitimacy.

Udinese manager Serse Cosmi was not impressed. Both players appeared at a press conference, promised that nothing like it would ever happen again, and have accepted heavy fines from the club.