For the fourth season in a row, Serie A will be absent from the Champions League semifinals. The last Italian side to take part to the penultimate round was Mourinho's Inter. It was the 2009-2010, the season of the Triplete: the Nerazzurri won Champions League, Scudetto and Coppa Italia. Milan was the Italian side that lasted the most in the current edition of the Champions League: not a huge outcome as the Rossoneri only reached the round of 16... In such a depressing situation, one has to find any convincing consolation to demonstrate that Italian football is – although not directly – involved in both the games that will be played this week. Atletico Madrid, Chelsea, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich: each one of the four sides still running for the big-eared Cup have to thank – for different reasons – our football.


Atletico Madrid. The main architect of the Colchoneros' miracle is el Cholo Simeone. Serie A was an essential school for the development of the most valued young coach in Europe. As we wrote some weeks ago he played in Serie A for eight seasons (2 for Pisa, 2 for Inter and 4 for Lazio), playing as a defensive midfielder in the most competitive and hard league in the world. He clashed with Roberto Baggio, Zinedine Zidane, Francesco Totti... and many more, acquiring a priceless patrimony of experience. Italy was important for Simeone because Catania was his first European job as a coach after having worked with Racing Club, Estudiantes, River Plate and San Lorenzo. In 6 months, he managed to save the Sicilian side from relegation. Now, many Serie A sides (Inter in primis) hope for a prompt return of el Cholo to the peninsula.


Chelsea. If you are an emotional Inter fan, please stop reading. Josè Mourinho is maybe the most missed coach ever in Italian football. It's odd, if you think that his Inter affair has been the shortest in Mourinho's coaching experience: two years only. But we are talking about two unforgettable years: 2 Italian titles, 1 Coppa Italia and, above all, a Champions League, a trophy that Inter won again after a 45 years drought. Actually, Mourinho won his last international trophy precisely with the Nerazzurri. Now the Special One wants to write his name in Chelsea's golden book below the Unknown One's: Roberto Di Matteo, the coach who lifted the Cup with the Blues. Something intolerable for a winner like Josè.


Real Madrid. Et voilà: another coach who sat on an Italian bench. But in this case, an Italian coach: his accent betrays his origin after 30 seconds of speech, in Spanish or in English. Carletto Ancelotti, whose story we told on SerieAddicted some months ago is the successor of Josè Mourinho on Real Madrid's broiler. He's the chosen one to bring la Decima (the tenth Champions League) in the Merengues' showcase. And he definitely holds the know-how, as he lifted it twice with Milan (2003 and 2007). Ancelotti's style is 100% Italian: his mentor was Arrigo Sacchi, even though he also grew up studying Nils Liedholm, that was his coach at Roma. The Swedish mister discovered Carletto's talent as a player and wanted him in Giallorosso, anticipating Inter. Maybe, his life and career would have taken a totally different turn.


Bayern Munich. Not even a football legend like Pep Guardiola wanted to close his career without an Italian experience. The current Bayern Munich's trainer, largely considered the best football coach at the moment, left Barcelona after eleven seasons (and an entire childhood) to join Brescia in the 2001-2002 season. For the Rondinelle he played alongside another icon: Roberto Baggio. At the end of that season he joined Roma, but he only played 4 games before being suspended for an alleged doping case. Guardiola was later discharged and the FIGC (the Italian football federation) even annulled the charge. Then, Pep returned to Brescia to play another 13 games. The Italian one was his last European experience as a player. Guardiola publicly admitted his admiration for the Czech Zdenek Zeman, as a man and as a coach. During his short Italian spell, Pep gained experience in the homeland of tactics, assimilating as much as he could from an old fox such as Carlo Mazzone and a legend such as Fabio Capello.