Barzagli: Bundesliga More Spectacular Than Serie A

VfL Wolfsburg's Italian defender Andrea Barzagli has risked ruffling some feathers back home by proclaiming that the Bundesliga is "more spectacular" than the Serie A.

Wolfsburg raised some eyebrows in the summer by signing both Andrea Barzagli and Cristian Zaccardo from Palermo, but so far that hasn't paid dividends as they ninth place with seven games played.

After voicing his dissatisfaction at having dropped too many points as a unit, Barzagli shared his impressions on the experience as a whole so far.

"The style of play is more spectacular here than it is in Italy," he told the Bundesliga's official website. "There's more goals than in the Serie A for starters. There is rarely a match there which ends 5-4 or 4-2.

"Italian football is very tactical. The small teams almost always just set out to defender, rather than launch any attacks themselves."

"The standard of play in Germany has definitely improved. Now, there are big clubs with top teams here. The stadiums are top of the line and almost always sold out with 40-50'000 fans. That's a big draw for professionals of course."

As fate may have it, Barzagli and his wolves will be up against Italian opposition as they have been drawn in the same group as AC Milan in the Uefa Cup, which admitted would be a daunting proposition.

"Milan belong to the strongest teams in the world, but in football there are always surprises. That said, the most important thing to us is to get points off other teams."

The German hopefuls will also be pitted against Portsmouth, Heerenveen and Braga in Europe's second tier club competiiton.