MICHAEL CAGE · MAY 30, 2021

Italy and Spain are two of the world’s biggest footballing nations, based on national team success, club success in European competitions, and attendances.

Only Brazil (5) have won the World Cup on more occasions than the Azzurri, whilst Spain won their first and only title more recently, in 2010. Italy haven’t been quite as dominant in the European Championships however, with their sole success coming all the way back in 1968.

Spain had won the Euros in 1964 before back-to-back successes with their Tiki-taka football in 2008 and 2012 respectively – thrashing Italy 4-0 in their most recent success. They are now tied with Germany for lifting the trophy on the most occasions.

Expect both of these nations to be among the favourites to win Euro 2020 this summer.

La Liga

The Spanish La Liga now competes with the English Premier League for the title of being the most popular football league in the world. This comes down to having two of the biggest clubs in the world – Real Madrid and Barcelona.

El Clasico is the biggest rivalry in world football, dominating the La Liga news headlines each season and attracting a higher television audience each season than any other derby. These two giants, along with Atletico Madrid are currently in a three-horse race to win the 2020-21 La Liga title.

Suggested Site: La Liga News

On the European front, Real Madrid’s 13 Champions League successes in six more than AC Milan, who sit second in table. And the 18 won by Spanish teams (Barcelona = 5) is more than any other country has produced.

Barcelona were also the record winners of the now defunct UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, whilst Sevilla have won the Europa League twice as many times as any other team. Simply put, La Liga dominates on the European front.

Serie A

Italian sides were arguably at their best in the 1990s. AC Milan won the Champions League twice and Juventus had their most recent success all the way back in 1996. On top of that, seven of the 10 Europa League winners came from Italy, which included four all-Italian finals and only in 1996 did neither finalist come from Serie A.

Serie A sides also dominated the world record transfers throughout the 90s – Juventus breaking the record in 1990 when they signed Roberto Baggio from Fiorentina, whilst Jean-Pierre Papin (AC Milan), Gianluca Vialli (Juventus), Gianluigi Lentini (AC Milan), Ronaldo (Internazionale) and Christian Vieiri (Internazionale) all broke the record before the end of the last millennium.

Suggested Article: Football Transfer Fee Records

The first world record transfer this millennium also saw Hernan Crespo make the switch from Parma to Lazio for a fee in the region of €35.5 million. Real Madrid would then hold the record for 16 years, breaking the record five times with the signings of Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane, Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale.

Italian sides haven’t had as much success in recent years. Juventus haven’t won a European trophy this millennium despite their dominance in the league and across the Serie A news landscape in recent years. Even the transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid hasn’t brought the Champions League trophy back to Turin yet.

AC Milan have won the competition twice since the year 2000, whilst rivals Internazionale were the most recent Italian side to lift the trophy, back in 2010. Parma were the last side from Italy to win the Europa League – back in 1999.

Suggested Site: Serie A News

Juventus have lost to both Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid in the final over the past few years whilst an Italian side hasn’t beaten a Spanish opponent in the final since AC Milan thrashed Marco van Basten’s Barcelona 4-0 back in 1994.

Very few teams have a positive head-to-head record versus Real Madrid or Barcelona whatever country they’re from.