Feb 26 (Reuters) - For the second successive season, Serie A has one club remaining in the last 16 of the Champions League as Italian football struggles to compete in Europe's premier club competition and risks falling even further behind.
No Italian club finished in the top eight of the league phase, which would have meant avoiding the knockout playoffs, a symptom of a wider malaise in Italian football with the national side also facing a playoff competition to avoid missing out on the World Cup for a third consecutive occasion.
