Sleeping giants need wake-up call

This season, the Serie B comprises 21 teams some of whom of a certain calibre, including fallen giants Juventus. They look stronger than the rest by a mile and a half.

Despite a hard-fought draw against Spezia last weekend, Didier Deschamps's Juve have already claimed the platonic winter champions title and their promotion is expected to materialise quite some time before the end of the season. It is anyone's guess who will win the other direct promotion slot and who will make it to the play-offs.

In football, there is no better feeling than to see the supposedly mighty ones struggling against the underdogs. Football commentators suggest that, after all, unexpected results make the sport the most exciting and with the best following around the globe.

Juventus have been rather erratic lately. Before the Christmas recess, they could only share the spoils with bottom-of-the-class Arezzo at home.

When the championship resumed earlier this month, they went down to Mantova 0-1 before thrashing Bari 4-2 in Turin.

But Juve's great escape came last Saturday following the one-all draw with lowly Spezia. The Bianconeri were a goal down until Pavel Nedved's equaliser two minutes into added time.

Juventus remain firm favourites to run away with the Serie B but they badly need an urgent wake-up call to put their long and enduring journey, which should end up by a much-awaited promotion, back on track.

The Serie B this season has plenty of clubs suffering from delusions of grandeur. Along with Juventus, one might cite Napoli, Genoa, Bologna and Verona, all former Italian champions. Indeed, the glory days are something of the past for these clubs.

The harsh reality of present days is represented by their relentless run to get back into the limelight and the coveted Serie A. Some will make it while others will remain in the doldrums.

Verona, Italy champions in 1985, are currently third from bottom.

They have to be very careful not to be dispatched to the abyss in Serie C1. Giampiero Ventura's side have all cards in place to avoid the drop but in the Serie B nothing's sure. There were several occasions before when promotion favourites ended up in the mire of relegation whereas, on the contrary, relatively unknown and less quoted sides won promotion to the Serie A.

The Verona supporters are among the most deluded of all, constantly reminding themselves of Osvaldo Bagnoli's title-winning team more than 20 years ago. But ever since that unprecedented success, the Verona faithful were badly let down with the team spending most of the time in the Serie B.

Juventus may seem the outright candidates to win the championship. But, one cannot remember a time when the Serie B was so evenly balanced. A good run of results, six or seven matches without defeat, could secure an automatic promotion place.

Bologna, Mantova, Napoli, Genoa, Piacenza and Rimini are all in contention to join Juve in Serie A.

The direct matches involving these promotion contenders were tight in the first round. The race is now on but with little to choose from one would not dare predict the winners as the championship enters the straight for home.

Serie A statistics

1st away win for lowly Ascoli as they came from a goal down to hand Messina their fourth home defeat. It was a must-win game for both sides. After the break, Bruno Giordano's Messina deservedly took a 78th-minute lead. When their first victory, after a barren run of 11 winless games, seemed in the offing, Ascoli hit back with two goals in stoppage time to revive their chances of staying up. Fiorentina bounced back from their upset to Inter by beating Livorno 2-1. The Florence team were always in the driving seat. However, against the run of play, it was Livorno who took the lead in the first half. Fiorentina continued to press forward and scored two second-half goals to seal their seventh win after 10 home outings.

2 wins and three defeats have characterised Franco Colomba's stuttering start with his new club Cagliari. Last weekend, Cagliari were beaten at home by Reggina and are now only six points above the drop zone. Cagliari have a truly awful record at home vs Reggina against whom they suffered three defeats in four winless encounters. In a direct clash for fourth place, Atalanta forfeited a first-half lead to share the spoils with Catania. From their eight league visits to Bergamo, Catania only have three draws to show.

3rd consecutive defeat for crisis-hit Torino as they were floored by Udinese for the seventh time in 25 home encounters. Udinese's second straight win since the arrival of coach Alberto Malesani was never in jeopardy. This was Torino's sixth home defeat this season.

4 players - Gabriele Cioffi (Torino), Luigi Di Biagio (Ascoli), Thomas Locatelli (Siena) and Gennaro Del Vecchio (Sampdoria) - were sent off last weekend. There were two penalties. Tommaso Rocchi made Lazio's away win over Palermo even more comprehensive by ably converting an 81st minute penalty. An Alessandro Parisi second-half penalty was not enough though for troubled Messina to end their long winning drought. The Sicilians scored all four penalties they had in favour this season. Third-placed Palermo are the side to have improved most in contrast to last term - 13 points. By stark contrast, with 14 points less, UEFA Cup hopefuls Livorno have experienced a notable dip compared to this time last year.

6th straight home league win for Milan against Parma as the Rossoneri left it late to register their fifth success in their last 10 unbeaten games in the Serie A. It was one-way traffic as Milan went all out for a win to stay within sight of the fourth place. But modest Parma proved to be a hard nut to crack with the up-and-coming Giuseppe Rossi very much in evidence. It had to be substitute Filippo Inzaghi who stole it for Milan and condemn Parma to their third defeat in their last four outings. In a drab encounter, Chievo and Empoli took a point each to keep their respective objectives intact. Three of the four encounters between these two sides in Verona finished in a draw. The only time Chievo beat Empoli at home was on November 24, 2002 (1-0).

14th straight win for Inter who went on to beat Sampdoria away for the second time in five days. Although Inter's defiant supremacy was evident from the word go, the turning point of the game came in the seventh minute with Gennaro Del Vecchio's sending off, thus leaving Sampdoria with 10 men and making Inter's task easier. The Nerazzurri have a good record in Genoa, where they have prevailed 24 times in 51 visits. Sampdoria's most recent of nine home wins over Inter dates back to March 21, 1999 (4-0). Meanwhile, Roma remained 11 points adrift of Inter ahead of next Sunday's clash at the San Siro. On Sunday, they edged Siena by a solitary Mirko Vucinic goal. Roma and Siena have never shared the spoils in four meetings in Rome.

22 goals were scored on the 21st day: eight coming from the hosts and the remaining 14 from the visitors. Foreigners contributed with eight goals while there were six first-half goals. Total number of goals scored so far is 526. Neither own goals nor hat-tricks were recorded. Four players - Elvis Abbruscato (Torino), Tommaso Rocchi (Lazio), Luca Vigiani (Reggina) and Michele Paolucci (Ascoli) - grabbed a brace each. Three players - Takayuki Morimoto (Catania), Filippo Inzaghi (Milan) and Gyan Asamoah (Udinese) - came on as substitutes and scored. Despite missing his side's narrow win at home over Siena, due to suspension, Roma's Francesco Totti still leads the scorers' list with 13 goals (three from penalties). He is closely followed by Jonathan Spinesi (Catania) and Luca Toni (Fiorentina)... both on the 11-goal mark.