An Inzaghi Brothers Reunion, European Glory and More AC Milan Struggles: Six Predictions for 2025
Published on: December 31, 2024
And so onto 2025, then. A year which, as far as Italian football is concerned, is brimming with promise.
And, for once, this is not just any old tired cliche wheeled out on New Year’s Eve to pad out the final column of the year. Wherever you look across calcio‘s landscape, there are reasons to be positively excited about the next 12 months.
From one of Serie A’s closest title races in years, to Italian clubs holding their own in European competitions and several players blossoming into stars, there new year comes with storylines aplenty.
Add to that the Azzurri’s ongoing revolution under Luciano Spalletti, AC Milan’s latest new era kicking off under Sergio Conceicao and Serie B’s beautifully berserk, unpredictable nature and there is plenty of intrigue.
Here are six bold and not-so-bold predictions for 2025.
Filippo Inzaghi to join his brother Simone in Serie A
A Serie A icon as a player, Filippo Inzaghi has found the going far tougher as a manager in calcio’s top tier. Superpippo’s reigns in charge of AC Milan and Bologna ultimately ended with his dismissal after he racked up just 18 wins in a combined 64 matches.
The 2006 World Cup winner, however, has proved himself to be a shrewd operator in Serie B. Having won promotion with Benevento in 2022, Inzaghi is now bidding to do the same with Pisa and doing a fine job of it in the process.
After finishing 13th last term, the Tuscans led Serie B throughout the autumn and head into 2025 just three points adrift of league leaders Sassuolo, who they convincingly beat 3-1 at home on Boxing Day.
Sacked by Salernitana in February after just five months in charge, Inzaghi has made an immediate impact in Tuscany.
Pisa have hitherto tied their colours firmly to the mast of counter-attacking football and average almost two goals per game, boasting the second-best attack and the second-best defence in the league.
If Pisa carry on in this fashion, Inzaghi’s Nerazzurri will find themselves facing his brother’s own Nerazzurri next season.
An Italian club to win the Europa League or Europa Conference League
There was a time when the UEFA Cup was the playground of Italian clubs. Between 1988 and 1999, a Serie A team lifted the trophy eight times in an astonishing run that included four all-Italian finals.
But with the advent of the new millennium, Serie A clubs barely fired a shot in anger in the UEFA Cup and the Europa League and could barely hide their contempt for the competition, which had come to be seen as a hindrance, rather than a trophy to target.
Some 21 years elapsed between Parma’s triumph over Olympique Marseille in 1999 and the next appearance by a Serie A club in the final act of the Europa League, an eternity for a league that had made European football’s second competition effectively its own.
Inter Milan lost the final to Sevilla in 2020 and Roma suffered the same fate three years later, before Atalanta dismantled Bayer Leverkusen in the final last season to become Italy’s first continental winners since Jose Mourinho’s Inter lifted the Champions League in 2010.
Winning the competition outright guarantees a side a place in the Champions League, no matter their league finish, a significant bonus for clubs and for Serie A as a whole, given the higher coefficient has earned the league five spots in the revamped Champions League as a result.
Serie A clubs are taking the Europa League seriously again and the same can be said about the Europa Conference League, which has featured an Italian finalist in each final since its inception three years ago.
With Fiorentina third in the Europa Conference League and Lazio top of the Europa League table, we could see a repeat of last season’s scenes when Atalanta lifted the trophy.
Moise Kean to win Capocannoniere
Moise Kean couldn’t buy a goal in his final season at Juventus. Since his move to Fiorentina, he can’t stop scoring.
Kean needed a change of environment after struggling in Turin for the past couple of seasons. The 24-year-old was never the first name on the team sheet at the Bianconeri, and the inconsistency of being in and out of the team affected his confidence.
The move to Florence had the potential to be fantastic. Kean needed regular minutes and Fiorentina needed a goalscorer, with the club cycling through a myriad of them since the departure of Dusan Vlahovic in January 2022.
Kean has answered the call, with 11 Serie A goals in the first half of the season. Now the focal point of the Viola attack, Kean is now playing with real confidence. It’s the first time Kean has ever hit double figures in Serie A, and only the second time in his career.
Third in the Capocannoniere stakes, you wouldn’t bet against Kean taking the award by season’s end. Mateo Retegui and Marcus Thuram have a goal more at present, but with Atalanta and Inter still in European competition, both Gian Piero Gasperini and Simone Inzaghi will rotate heavily in the second half of the season, meaning Retegui and Thuram may not get the minutes Kean will.
Fiorentina are still in the Europa Conference League, but with Champions League qualification a real possibility, coach Raffaele Palladino will surely throw all his eggs in the Serie A basket, meaning Kean will start.
And more goals will follow.
Milan to finish outside of the European places
AC Milan’s season hasn’t been as horrendous as say, Roma’s, but it hasn’t gone according to plan.
Paulo Fonseca, who was a questionable choice to begin with after replacing Stefano Pioli last summer, was sacked in late December after — incidentally — a 1-1 draw with Roma at San Siro.
Yet Fonseca can also feel hard done by. Many of his players simply didn’t play to standard, with the Portuguese coach having issues with Rafael Leao and Theo Hernandez at certain parts of the season.
Moreover, Milan’s summer mercato left a lot to be desired. Many was spent, but it arguably wasn’t spent wisely, with RedBird’s ‘moneyball’ approach of buying young players with potential not bearing fruit as of yet.
Sergio Conceicao has now arrived to replace Fonseca, and whether the former Porto coach will be able to get a tune out of the same players remains to be seen. Conceicao has been handed a six-month contract, and if he doesn’t guide Milan into the top four he likely won’t remain.
Yet the truth of it is there are better teams than Milan in Serie A, so even reaching the top four will require putting together a decent run of results. Their only hope is that Italy is handed a fifth place in the competition next season and they can manage to squeak into the top five.
But it’s difficult to see this Milan outfit finishing inside the Champions League, or even Europa League, places.
Padova, Ternana and Pescara to clinch Serie C promotion
Italian football fans may know that three Serie A teams get relegated but may not have discovered that four clubs drop down from Serie B to Serie C.
Yes, that means four go up from the third division, which contains three groups, divided into North (Group A), Central (Group B) and South (Group C). Three of the four promotion spots are awarded to first-placed teams from each group, with the fourth given to the PlayOff winner (see Carrarese last season).
Despite the lack of home support, promotion for Padova is all but confirmed as they lead Vicenza by 10 points in Group A.
With 20 rounds played, the central region is joint-led by Entella, Pescara and Ternana (41 points each). Benevento (40 points) leads Monopoli (38) in Group C, but the peloton of Potenza, Avellino and Audace Cerignola (all 35) are close enough to challenge with 18 home and away games remaining.
Ternana’s form under manager Ignazio Abate – undefeated in the past 15 matches – means they’re Destination Calcio‘s pick from Group B, just ahead of Pescara, who have won only once in the past five matches.
Twelve-goal striker Salvatore Caturano will need to remain consistent if Potenza are to push from Group C while Avellino has lost only once in the past 15. But Benevento are my pick to return to Serie B if they can hold on to Gennaro Acampora in the January window. Catania and Crotone, who have the best form over the last ten rounds, are a decent shout for play-offs.
Prediction: Automatic promotion for Padova, Ternana and Benevento. Pescara via the play-off final.
Another influx of Scottish talent
2024 was the year of the Scottish invasion in Serie A.
Led by the success of Lewis Ferguson at Bologna and his incredible exploits in helping them reach the Champions League, a number of his international teammates took the chance to join him in Italy’s top flight last summer.
Che Adams moved to Torino, where he has been turning heads with strikes from the half-way line, while Billy Gilmour and Scott McTominay have been playing their part in Napoli’s tilt for the title.
With all seeming to have adjusted well to the change of scenery, there will be a few more in Steve Clarke’s changing room asking about the pros and cons of life in Italy.
Andy Robertson will have just a year left on his Liverpool contract next summer, and could well be looking for one last adventure after eight incredible years at Anfield. His fellow full-back Kieran Tierney also looks set for a new club after falling down the pecking order at Arsenal.
With Liam Henderson still going strong at Empoli, and Josh Doig enjoying life with Sassuolo in Serie B, there are plenty of experiences to tap into should their fellow countrymen be looking for references.
