Inter Milan, AC Milan and AS Roma all received lessons in midweek Champions League games and will need to sharpen their focus for this weekend's Serie A matches.
Inter jumped out to a 4-0 lead over 10-man Tottenham then withstood a hat trick from Gareth Bale to secure a 4-3 win, AC Milan was humbled 2-0 by Real Madrid and Roma lost to FC Basel 3-1.
Inter hosts Sampdoria and Italy playmaker Antonio Cassano this weekend, Milan visits fourth-place Napoli and Roma plays at Bari with coach Claudio Ranieri's job on the line.
Lazio, which holds a surprising two-point lead over Inter and Milan, hosts Cagliari.
Bale's goals could have caused Inter manager Rafa Benitez to have a flashback to 2005, when his Liverpool club overcame a 3-0 halftime deficit to beat Milan in the Champions League final - only this time he was nearly on the side that gave up the lead.
"At 4-1 I was upset, at 4-2 I became angry and at 4-3 even more so," Benitez said. "We should certainly take that second half as a lesson for the future."
Besides the drop in focus, Inter also lost midfielder Dejan Stankovic to injury early in the second half. The Serbia captain took off his shoe and threw it away angrily after aggravating a calf problem that also affected him last season.
Stankovic could be out 10 days and Inter is already without forward Diego Milito, potentially for several more weeks.
Fortunately, striker Samuel Eto'o continues to carry Inter, with his two goals against Tottenham raising his total to 18 goals in 15 matches for club and country this season.
"Samuel is in great form and if the squad continues to support him he could go well beyond the 30 goals he set as a preseason goal," Benitez said.
Milan allowed Madrid to score twice in a two-minute span early in the first half, with Cristiano Ronaldo firing in the first goal with a free kick through a hole in Milan's wall.
"I made the error in the wall and in games like these you pay for mistakes like that," Milan midfielder Clarence Seedorf said. "We didn't play a great match but we've got to move on and focus on Serie A and Napoli now."
Napoli, which faced Liverpool in the Europa League on Thursday, has a high-powered attack with Marek Hamsik, Ezequiel Lavezzi and Edinson Cavani.
Roma, meanwhile, is in the worst shape of Italy's three top clubs from last season, having won only two of seven Serie A matches and one of three in Europe.
Ranieri was livid after the first half against Basel, when his side appeared completely inattentive, but said the players couldn't provide an explanation in the changing room. Speculation has former Milan coach Leonardo waiting as a possible replacement if the Giallorossi fail to bounce back against Parma, which is one spot from the bottom of the table.
Fiorentina, which is last in the table, hosts Bari with new coach Sinisa Mihajlovic's job on the line, too, while Juventus visits Bologna after its Europa League game at Salzburg.
Also this weekend, it's: Chievo Verona vs. Cesena; Genoa vs. Catania; Lecce vs. Brescia; and Udinese vs. Palermo.
