Italy began 2008 as host country to the world champions for both clubs and countries but ended it in dismay and at times disarray.
Italy are still the world champions, for another year and a half at least, but came up well short on the continental stage in Austria and Switzerland.
They were drawn in the so-called group of death with France, the Netherlands and Romania and got off to a terrible start, thrashed 3-0 by the Dutch.
A draw with Romania left them in a precarious position but a 2-0 victory over 10-man France allowed the world champions to stumble into the quarter-finals.
That was as far as they would go, though, as they lost to eventual winners Spain on penalties, a failure that cost coach Roberto Donadoni his job.
While the national team failed to produce on the international stage, the country's club sides were equally underwhelming abroad.
Starting the year with the European champions AC Milan, hopes of Italian involvement in the Champions League final in Moscow in May would have been high.
But things started off badly as Lazio finished bottom of their group but both Milan sides topped theirs and AS Roma also made it through to the knock-out stages.
However, that was where the English became the scourge of Italy. Arsenal dumped Milan and Liverpool beat Inter home and away in the second round leaving only Roma to fly the green, red and white flag.
They had a surprising victory over Real Madrid in the second round but fell to Manchester United in the quarter-finals for the second year in a row.
Even in Europe's secondary competition, the UEFA Cup, Italian teams were little more than an embarrassement.
Palermo, Sampdoria and Empoli failed to even make the group stages losing to teams from Slovakia, Denmark and Switzerland.
Only Fiorentina put up a fight, making it all the way to the semi-final before losing on penalties to a Rangers team so negative that they were described as playing anti-football.
On the domestic front any hopes of Inter's domination of Serie A being ended also fell flat.
Inter started the year with Roberto Mancini at the helm and a healthy lead over AS Roma, their only serious title challengers.
Luciano Spalletti's men stuck in, though, and gradually ground back the gap on Inter to arrive at the final game of the season just a point behind and with a chance of being crowned champions.
Briefly, they led Catania while Inter were being held by Parma which would have been enough for Rome to claim the title.
But Inter scored twice, Catania equalised and any hope of an unexpected twist in the season's tail ended.
There was some excitement, though, as the reigning world and European champions AC Milan failed to make up enough ground from their dreadful start to the season and finished fifth, missing out on Champions League qualification.
Without the distraction of Champions League football the next season and with marquee signings Ronaldinho, Andrei Shevchenko and Mathieu Flamini joining a team already including Ballon d'Or winner Kaka and stars such as Alessandro Nesta, Andrea Pirlo and Gennaro Gattuso, a lot of hype surrounded the San Siro.
Inter meanwhile replaced Mancini, who paid for his European failure, with former Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho and a battle royale was expected in the new title race.
But while Mourinho's Inter carried on where Mancini's had left off, the new Milan failed to shine.
They ended the year nine points behind Inter and with a mountain to climb to win a first title since 2004.
Juventus, on the other hand, proved the most likely pretenders to Inter's crown. With one season of Serie A action under their belts following their match-fixing relegation and some intelligent summer recruiting, they ended the year second but still six points behind Inter.
The blue and black half of Milan still looks likely to dominate in 2009 while in Europe a dangerous path awaits the Italian teams.
Revenge will be on their minds as all three survivors from the Champions League group stage -- Inter, Juve and Roma -- have drawn English teams in the second round.
