All races are still up in the air in Serie A
All races are still up in the air in Serie A
By Mirko Corli
Serie A is coming to an end, we have only 8 games left and all the races are still open. Inter, Roma, and Milan are still fighting for the Scudetto, while Palermo, Napoli, Juventus and Sampdoria are the main players fighting for the last Champions League spot.
As far as relegation is concerned, Atalanta, Siena and Livorno are struggling to close the gap between them and Udinese, the first squad to now be safe.
The weekend started with the big match between Roma and Inter and the result was the one that everybody apart from Inter fans wanted to have: the Giallorossi secured an important win at home on the champions, and they are now only one point below Inter in the table.
To be honest, the fair result would have been a draw (Inter hit the crossbar in the first half and hit two posts in the second, with the last one at the end of injury time) but Roma took it all and put a lot of pressure on Inter.
Now the fixtures seem to be slightly better for Roma: until the end of the league they will face easy teams, who are not fighting for anything serious, and the only challenge seems to be the derby against Lazio. Inter has still to face important games (Juventus at home, Fiorentina in Florence, Lazio at home) and in between there are the two matches against CSKA Moscow and the second leg of the Italian Cup Semifinal against Fiorentina.
The next 2 or 3 games will tell us who is likely to secure the Scudetto this year.
Milan is still in the race, even if it was not able to win against Lazio at home. The Rossoneri are now 3 points below Inter and 2 below Roma, but they will face the most difficult games until the end of the season.
Remember that Inter has to finish the championship ahead of Roma in order to win, because if at the end of the season the three title-challenging teams have the same amount of points, Inter will be named the Scudetto winner.
In 4th place we have Palermo, who struck Bologna 3-1 with a hat-trick from Fabrizio Miccoli. The tiny striker is now maybe the best one in the league and - even if he’s a bit out of shape - he can dream about leaving for South Africa in June. At least that’s what people in the streets seem to wish for the national team selection.
Napoli (1-0 against Catania at home), Juventus (2-1 against Atalanta at home) and Sampdoria (1-1 with Cagliari at home) are Palermo’s opponents for the 4th place that sends a club to the early stages of the Champions League.
Juventus had quite a difficult day in Torino: in the very beginning fans chanting against the team outside the hotel that hosted them, then Jonathan Zebina was hit by a fan while boarding the coach to the stadium. The stadium itself was pretty much empty due to a fan strike against the Bianconeri’s poor season. Despite all of this chaos, Juve secured an important win at home, still suffering, but ended with a game-winning goal from Brazilian Felipe Melo, who did apologize for the poor season while celebrating his goal.
Good results also for Parma and Chievo (nil-nil between the two sides), Fiorentina (4-1 against Udinese) and Genoa (nil-nil in Siena).
The relegation zone is now quite well shaped: Atalanta, Siena and Livorno will likely be the three sides to go down if Lazio and Udinese do not slip more.
Time for the best goals of the week now: Fiorentina’s Juan Manuel Vargas free kick; livorno’s Francesco Tavano and a vital equalizer; Alex Del Piero’s free kick.
