‘Fairytale’ Bodo/Glimt win leaves Italian football facing ‘big moment’ as Internazionale exit UEFA Champions League – Karen Carney
Karen Carney reflected on a “fairytale” victory for Bodo/Glimt as they defeated Internazionale over two legs in their UEFA Champions League play-off tie. The Norwegians secured a 2-1 win on the night and a 5-2 victory overall. Carney pointed out that European struggles are not the only problems facing Italian football at the moment because their national team are also out of form.
Karen Carney believes a “fairytale” win for Bodo/Glimt over Internazionale has left Italian football facing a “big moment”.
Inter are 10 points clear of their nearest rivals in Serie A, with head coach Cristian Chivu looking set to deliver a dominant title win.
However, they faced ignominy on Tuesday night as they looked to overturn a 3-1 deficit against their Norwegian opponents, only to suffer a wretched 2-1 home defeat when they never looked like forcing their way through in their UEFA Champions League play-off.
A throttled performance cost them their place in European football in the play-off stages, having reached the final last year, and Carney was surprised and alarmed at the level of drop-off from the team and pointed out the wider context of the problem.
She told TNT Sports: “This time last year I was saying they’d go on and win it, I was that confident with them. Obviously, they got to the final and then it just fell apart.
“Their bread and butter is the league, but what we’re finding with Italian football is that they’re really dropping off in European competitions. Inter are the flag-bearers in this competition and now they’re so far off.”
The national side have been forced into a World Cup play-off for the third consecutive campaign and haven’t played a match on the biggest international stage since 2014.
“It’s a huge concern,” Carney continued. “I mentioned that for the World Cup, they have to qualify for the World Cup through the play-offs. If they don’t, that’s three times they will miss the World Cup. For Italian football, in the next month, both club and international, it is a big moment. There’s a big conversation [to be had]. We’re not used to seeing this from Italian teams.”
Martin Keown was left similarly unimpressed by the Italians, suggesting that a defeat to Liverpool had shaken their self-confidence and left them psychologically vulnerable in Europe.
He said: “Really poor. They just didn’t have their snap in their game. 18 games unbeaten until Liverpool came here, now they can’t win again. They’ve lost that invincibility, that aura. Three times winner of the competition. Didn’t move the ball quick enough. They didn’t score quick enough, and they needed to score early.”
‘Quite remarkable’ – Keown wowed by Bodo/Glimt
Keown then turned to Bodo/Glimt’s effort and pointed out their evolution from last season when they progressed to the Europa League’s last four.
He said: “That is a quite remarkable performance from a really outstanding team, which got to the semi-finals of the Europa last season. They learnt a lot from it, we saw a lot of good things from them.
“They hung on in this competition. To win here is massive for their confidence. You wouldn’t want to be playing this lot in the next round.”
Carney was similarly enthused by their showing in what is perhaps the biggest win of a season where they have already comfortably and confidently beaten Manchester City in the league phase.
“It’s just unbelievable,” she said. “It’s a fairytale, isn’t it? We watched Inter Milan, who got in two finals in the last three years, and in your first campaign, you’re on the brink of elimination.
“You find yourself on this good run. This wasn’t a smash and grab, it was a controlled victory. They absolutely deserved it.”
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