Favourites find their way up after dour season

The long and demanding 2004/05 Serie B championship did not reserve any particular surprises. Firm favourites Genoa, Empoli and Torino all found their way up to the Serie A after a long and enduring season.

At the wrong end of the table, Catanzaro, Venezia, Pescara and Vicenza were demoted to the third division.

Quite surprisingly, the first side to be promoted were Empoli and not big-spenders Genoa or the once-mighty Torino.

New coach Mario Somma could count on a very competitive side at Empoli, boasting among others players the quality of Ighli Vannucchi, Francesco Pratali, Stefano Lucchini and Francesco Tavano.

The Tuscany side were off to a promising start as they were always in contention for one of the two top slots which guaranteed automatic promotion to the top division.

Many expected them to fade as the competition intensified due to their evident lack of strength-in-depth. But this was not the case.

Empoli were consistent and strong all the way. In the end, this paid the desired dividends for them. Perhaps Empoli's best player in the past season was 26-year-old striker Tavano. He scored vital goals to steer his team to glory.

Empoli proved once again that money does not buy success in football.

Had it been so, then Empoli would not have made it for sure.

Who splashed millions and millions of euros to build an awesome squad were Genoa. They were under the shrewd guide of former Perugia mentor Serse Cosmi. The team is up after a whole decade in the second division.

Before the season got underway, Genoa were the absolute favourites for promotion.

Club president and owner Enrico Preziosi put a fortune behind the building of a strong squad.

Players with a proven track record in Serie A, like Sabri Lamouchi, Andrea Sottil, Mohammed Gargo, Vittorio Tosto, Roberto Stellone and Giovanni Tedesco, were the backbone of the team.

So strong were Genoa that in the January transfer window, they could afford to part company with schemer Francesco Cozza (Siena) and Nigerian striker Ayodele Makinwa (Atalanta).

After a shaky start in pre-season, which culminated in a premature elimination from the Coppa Italia at the hands of Torino and the consequent sacking of coach Luigi De Canio, Genoa were off to a stuttering start in the Serie B as well.

However, once the new players settled down and Cosmi's tactics were put into practice, Genoa never looked back and built a seemingly assuring lead at the top of the table.

At the half-way stage, they were already within sights of promotion as the other contenders were finding the going tough. However, Genoa went through a dark patch in the concluding stages of the season and, to some extent, they also put into jeopardy their promotion chances.

It had to be a 3-2 home win over relegated Venezia on the final day of the season that saw them through.

Genoa's presence in the Serie A is still in the balance because, at the moment, an inquiry is going through following match-fixing allegations in two matches involving the side.

Moreover, Cosmi left to join Udinese in the Serie A. Next season, Genoa will have Francesco Guidolin as coach.

Torino and Perugia finished the season level on points with Empoli and only two behind Genoa.

Empoli were promoted automatically due to their favourable results in direct encounters whereas Torino and Perugia had to contest the last remaining promotion slot via the play-offs.

Torino met Ascoli and fourth-placed Perugia had to clash with Treviso in the semi-finals before the showdown.

As expected, both Torino and Perugia found little resistance to book a place in the final.

Zaccarelli lifts Torino

The Granata, who sacked coach Ezio Rossi two days from the end of the season, seemed a completely transformed side.

Under the guide of ex-club player Rossi, Torino had finished in a mediocre mid-table position in season 2003/04 and faltered on many a time during that term.

Then, last summer, they were off to a fabulous start as they won all their first five games of the season but they soon started losing the pace.

Rossi was on the verge of getting the sack on various occasions but he stayed put until the 40th day.

Under the charge of the stop-gap Renato Zaccarelli, Torino were all the more convincing.

They won five of the six games they played under the charge of the ex-Torino stalwart as the players seemed more motivated and disciplined.

Torino and Perugia were two equally strong outfits and as a matter of fact, they each won half of their 42 league outings.

Both teams were as formidable as Empoli and Genoa. But only one of them was to go up.

To their advantage, Torino had obtained more favourable results in the direct encounters. In the end, this proved the determining factor in Torino's promotion bid after a two-year wait.

At the Renato Curi Stadium, Perugia surrendered to a cynical Torino side by the odd goal in three. This compromised their hopes of returning to the top division after only one season in Serie B. In the return leg, Perugia pursued with their bold away march as they chalked up their 13th away win of the term but this was not enough to see them through.

Extra time was needed because in play-offs, the 'away goals' rule did not count. But even extra time was not enough for Perugia to double their lead and win back a place in Serie A.

As things stand at present, the future of both Torino and Perugia seem bleak.

In fact, the dire financial state of these two clubs may deprive them from participating in the professional leagues next season.