(foto: Getty Images)
Italian teams dominate the Champions League: Inter Milan, Atalanta, AC Milan, Juventus, and Bologna fight for top spots, showcasing defensive strength and surprises in Europe's elite competition.
Although the jury still may be out on the new format of the Champions League, it seems that Italian teams have settled into the new competition well and through five games of the 2024/2025 tournament both Inter Milan and Atalanta find themselves well placed to progress to the knockout phase.
With just three games left to go, the table is starting to set itself and the race to finish inside the top eight and ensure a spot inside the top 16 is intensifying. With Italy topping the coefficient places last season, there will be high hopes that they can repeat the trick once again this season.
Here is our report of how each Italian team has fared through the halfway point of this year’s tournament.
Inter Milan
Serie A’s defending champions Inter Milan have started their Champions League season strongly and have gone through their first five games with four wins and one draw.
Wins against Red Star, Young Boys, Arsenal and Leipzig as well as a draw against Manchester City has seen Inter rise up the betting odds with lists of sports betting sites all over Europe and nobody will fancy playing them in the knockout rounds.
Although Inter haven’t scored a bucket load of goals during their hot start to this year’s campaign, at the other end of the pitch they have been imperious and as of yet they have yet to concede a goal. Boasting the best defence in the tournament, if Inter can keep things lean at the back they will be a tough nut to crack for any team to overcome and they could easily find themselves reaching the latter stages of this tournament.
Atalanta
Fans of Atalanta have never had it so good and last season’s surprise Europa League winners have got off to a brilliant start in the Champions League and look like they have a fighting chance of making the top eight in the standings.
With eleven points from their first five games, convincing away wins against Stuttgart, Shakhtar and Young Boys have been combined with two home draws against Celtic and Arsenal and it’s fair to say that the side from Bergamo seem to have settled into life in Europe’s top competition nicely.
Whereas Inter have been lean at the back, Atalanta have also been measly and have just conceded one goal but have found the back of the net on eleven occasions.
More or less assured their place in the top 24, Atalanta will now have their sights set on qualifying for the knockouts in the top eight, matches against Real Madrid, Barcelona and Sturm Graz will have their challenges but Atalanta certainly won’t have any nerves of the challenge that lies ahead.
AC Milan
AC Milan have had a mixed start to this season’s Champions League but they find themselves firmly in the mix to finish inside the top eight.
A narrow 3-2 victory over minnows Slovan Bratislava had its dangers but by managing to hold on they have given themselves a great chance of progression.
Their 3-1 victory away at Real Madrid was without a doubt the result of this year’s tournament and Milan certainly have the players to beat anyone on their day.
One more win will assure their spot in the last 16 but they will have hopes for more.
Juventus
It’s amazing to think that despite all of their successes, Juventus are still looking for their first ever Champions League title.
Another Italian side that is well placed, Juventus are a hard team to place as many believed at the start of the campaign they would be one of the competitions also-rans and a defeat against Stuttgart certainly lends to that argument.
A place in the top 24 should be theirs for the taking, but they will need to overcome matches against Man City, Club Brugge and Benfica so they will need to do it the hard way.
Bologna
The fifth team representing Serie A in this year’s Champions League is Bologna.
Having just managed one point through their first four games, Bologna already find themselves out of the running for a top eight finish but they have an uphill task of making the top 24.
With their best players and managers from last season now plying their trades elsewhere, if Bologna can somehow make the top 24 it would be one of the successes of the tournament.