Re: FIFA World Cup 2026 :Canada/Mexico/United States: Discussion Thread
The manner in which Inter Milan lost the Champions League final had nothing to do with random English teams spending a fortune on new players. Inter Milan did not do what they did in all those other games and player quality was not the issue in the league phase, not in the round of 16 or quarterfinal or semifinal. They could have done it in the final, but for some reason stopped playing football altogether in that game.
I'm not trying to defend Inter's defeat (I'm a Juventus fan so I hate Inter 
), I was just pointing out that Italian teams don't spend the same way they used to so there is a financial gap that every year gets bigger and bigger. Considering our situation the fact that we played 4 Champions League finals in the last 10 years (Juventus 2015 and 2017, Inter 2023 and 2025) is quite remarkable. We lost all of them but it's like if, I don't know, Uruguay or Croatia qualify for a World Cup final quite often: they are good teams but there are better ones, and at the beginning of the competition for sure very few people would expect them to reach the final.In regards to the Italian national team, I think 0% is too pessimistic.
Considering our qualification path 0% could be even too optimistic because it means we would partecipate at the World Cup, and right now it's not what is happening And one more thing about the money spent and success it brings. PSG paid for Messi, Mbappe and Neymar and you know how that ended in the Champions League.
PSG is a different case because they were collecting players, there was no idea, no project, just buy random famous players.Yes but this "collecting players" as you call it, it is a thing that many clubs do. It is not anything special for PSG. See how Tottenham and Manchester United did last season and they are rich Premier League clubs. I don't disagree though that the gap in terms of financial scope is widening, but I still think that Inter Milan is one of the best teams right now and Juventus Turin is making too many wrong decisions about player transfers. I didn't like the composition of their squad for the last 3-4 years.
I agree that Italy isn't having their best time now, but I still think if they get into the knockout stages at the World Cup, they still must be considered a strong team. If it is like Italy against Portugal, it wouldn't be an easy call. Those big events have their own rules.