The Champions League quarter-finals strip away Serie A's last facade, revealing comprehensive lagging behind and being dominated, while the Premier League leads with four teams.

Following the completion of the second-leg matches in the Europa League and Europa Conference League quarter-finals, the semi-finalists for all three European tournaments are now confirmed. This strips away the last shred of dignity for Serie A and Italian football, showcasing their comprehensive lagging and vulnerability. In contrast, the Premier League reaffirms its status as the leading league, with four teams reaching the semi-finals across the three competitions—twice as many as any other league.

Europa League semi-final matchups: Braga (Portuguese Liga) vs Freiburg (German Bundesliga), Nottingham Forest vs Aston Villa (Premier League internal clash).Based on the strength of the Europa League semi-finalists and the matchups, Aston Villa, coached by Unai Emery, is the top favorite to win the title.

Europa Conference League semi-final matchups: Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukrainian Premier League) vs Crystal Palace, Rayo Vallecano (Spanish La Liga) vs Strasbourg (French Ligue 1).Crystal Palace is the only semi-finalist in the Europa Conference League with a squad value exceeding €500 million. They will fully commit to winning this season's Europa Conference League title and possess the capability to achieve it.

Including the Champions League semi-finals, where each of France's Ligue 1, Germany's Bundesliga, Spain's La Liga, and England's Premier League has one team, the distribution of semi-finalists across the three European competitions by league is as follows:Premier League: 4 teams; Ligue 1, Bundesliga, La Liga: each 2 teams; Portuguese Liga, Ukrainian Premier League: each 1 team; Serie A: 0 teams.Serie A teams were completely eliminated after the first knockout round of the Champions League. Now, among the five major leagues, only Serie A has no teams in any of the three European competition semi-finals, while the other four major leagues each have at least two teams advancing. Without comparison, there is no realization of the gap. Combined with Italy's consecutive absence from the World Cup, Serie A and Italian football have fallen into a deep trough, with no visible forces for recovery or innovation.