Unfairly maligned or calcio in crisis? Atalanta's success shouldn't distract from the failings of Italy's top teams in the Champions League

As Alessandro Costacurta effectively admitted at the end of a dramatic final night of the Champions League play-offs, he and his fellow pundits in the Sky Sports studio had come to bury Serie A's representatives in Europe - not to praise them. And yet they were left with no option to do so after two remarkable revivals proved that Italian football isn't dead yet.