Juventus face stern challenge for top-four berth

Prior to last weekend's matches, Juventus were still unbeaten against the top teams in the Serie A.

They had managed a win and a draw against Roma, away draws at Fiorentina and Milan and a home draw with Inter.

On Sunday, however, the unexpected happened as Fiorentina, playing without Fabio Liverani, Christian Vieri and Adrian Mutu, edged Juve by the odd goal in five in Turin. This upset could prove costly for Juve in their quest for a top-four finish.

Inter and Roma are almost sure of participating in next season's Champions League, leaving Juve, Fiorentina and fifth-placed Milan battling it out for the other two spots. At present, Juventus have one point more than Fiorentina and five better off than Milan.

So far, Claudio Ranieri's side have done well in what was described as a transitional season for the Turin giants. They have been occupying third place in the standings for much of the campaign and up to last December they were still in the race for the title along with Inter and Roma.

The old guard - Gianluigi Buffon, Alessandro Del Piero, Mauro German Camoranesi, Pavel Nedved and David Trezeguet - were instrumental for Juve's revival after a year in the Serie B doldrums.

Apart from these exceptional players, Ranieri can count on the talent of the upcoming Giorgio Chiellini, Antonio Nocerino, Christian Molinaro and Raffaele Palladino. They have done really well up to now.

However, the main reason behind Juve's failure to reach higher goals lies on the poor contribution of their new signings.

Cardoso Tiago, Zdenek Grygera, Jorge Andrade and Sergio Almiron failed to leave their mark for some reason or another.

Almiron, in particular, was so ineffective that in the January transfer window the club deemed it fit to loan him out until the end of the season to Monaco in the Ligue 1.

But, despite the setbacks in the transfer market, Ranieri is certainly doing a great job with the limited resources he has at his disposal.

Chiellini has become a pillar in the heart of the defence despite the fact that before Ranieri was appointed coach last summer, he was on the verge of being offloaded to Manchester City.

Juventus do not have a suitable replacement for the versatile Chiellini and struggle when he is not available as happened last Sunday when the team conceded two soft goals to Fiorentina in a crucial match.

Molinaro, Nocerino and Palladino look promising but need time to gel and settle down in the Serie A.

Ranieri cannot count on reserves of quality like other coaches. This limits his options especially when it comes to adopt a rotation policy or drop off-form players to the bench.

To their advantage, Juventus are not playing in European club competitions and this leaves them with only their league commitments to focus on.

Having collected just one point out of the last available nine should not discourage Juve in their quest to maintain a top-four finish.

Qualification to the Champions League will not be easy though as Fiorentina and Milan are expected to produce a stern challenge in the straight for home.

However, if Juve regain composure and show the same kind of determination they had in the early stages of the season, everything is still possible for the 'Old Lady'.

Serie A statistics

1st league defeat for Inter this season as the Nerazzurri, shorn of several regular players, went down to a determined Napoli side at the San Paolo stadium in Sunday evening's match. Even in their last visit to Naples, in February 2001, Inter were beaten 1-0. For the record, Inter's most recent of 17 wins in 62 visits down south to Naples dates back to October 18, 1997 (2-0). Also, the last drawn result between these two sides came in October 1993 (0-0). Inter's defeat, coupled with Roma's comprehensive home win over struggling Parma on Saturday, meant that the team from the capital moved to within six points of Roberto Mancini's side. Parma have a truly dire record in Rome where they have won only once in 18 visits.

4 players - Antonio Cassano (Sampdoria), Davide Moro (Empoli), Lorenzo De Silvestri (Lazio) and Pablo Osvaldo (Fiorentina) - received marching orders by referees last weekend. Three penalties were awarded. David Di Michele made no mistake in converting Torino's fourth penalty of the term. Elsewhere, Massimo Oddo scored against his former club Lazio from the spot to help Milan salvage a home draw. Marcelo Zalayeta had a golden opportunity to make Napoli's home win over Inter even more emphatic but saw his penalty ably stopped by Inter keeper Julio Cesar. All top division sides have now had at least one penalty in favour and one against. Empoli have registered the most notable slump in points won with respect to last season (-16). Fiorentina have exactly the same points of last term. Relegation-haunted Parma have five points more than 12 months ago.

6th win for Fiorentina in 69 visits to Turin as they closed in on third-placed Juventus thanks to a Pablo Osvaldo last-gasp goal in a 3-2 win. Juve's second home upset of the term, following the 0-1 reverse to Udinese on the third day, coincided with Fiorentina's sixth away success. Also, all Juve have to show from their last three outings is a mere goalless draw in the derby with Torino. In the only 0-0 draw of the day, Reggina and Palermo shared the spoils in a drab, almost lifeless, match. This was the third straight draw between these two sides in Reggio Calabria. On Monday, second-from-bottom Reggina sacked coach Renzo Ulivieri. He had replaced Massimo Ficcadenti in November.

7 positive results in a row (two wins and five draws) helped Torino to stay away from the relegation zone. On Sunday, the Maroons were good enough to hold on to a precious 2-2 away draw to Sampdoria. This was the 20th drawn result - the first since November 20, 1994 (1-1) - in 44 meetings at the Luigi Ferraris stadium between these two sides. Torino have recorded their most recent of six wins in Genoa on March 7, 1993 (1-0). Milan came from a goal down to share the spoils with Lazio at their Giuseppe Meazza stadium. Thanks to this result, Milan extended their unbeaten run to nine games (five wins and four draws). Lazio have last conquered Milan on September 3, 1989 (1-0). Milan have so far collected five points less than a year ago whereas Lazio have a staggering -14 points with respect to 12 months ago.

10th winless game on the trot (three draws and seven defeats) for lowly Catania as the southerners went down to Livorno for the second year running. This was Catania's eighth straight away defeat. For Livorno, this was their first success after a barren run of seven winless games in succession (two draws and five defeats). Udinese returned to winning ways at their Friuli Stadium after almost three months thanks to a comfortable 2-0 win over Atalanta. The last time these two sides shared the spoils in Udine was in November 1993 (0-0). This was Atalanta's second straight away defeat following the 0-3 setback to Lazio on the 23rd day.

14 years had to pass for Cagliari to return to winning ways against Genoa at home. The Sardinians came from a goal down to record their fourth home win of the season, thus condemning Genoa to their first defeat after back-to-back wins over Udinese (5-3) and Napoli (2-0). In a vital basement clash Siena scored a goal in each half to hand Empoli their second straight defeat (after the 0-2 midweek reverse to Palermo). Siena have now extended their positive run to four games (two wins and two draws).

24 goals were scored on the 26th day: 15 coming from the hosts and the remaining nine from the visitors, who managed only two victories. Foreigners contributed with five goals while there were 12 first-half goals. Total number of goals scored so far amount to 659. Neither braces nor hat-tricks were recorded. Giulio Falcone (Parma) and Rubens Rubinho (Genoa) committed the only two own goals of the day. Mirko Vucinic (Roma), Christian Rigano (Siena), Alessandro Diamanti (Livorno) and Ndiave Papa Waigo and Pablo Osvaldo (both Fiorentina) came on as substitutes and scored. Marco Borriello (Genoa) still leads the scorers list with 16 goals (five from penalties). The 25-year-old ex-Milan striker is followed by Frenchman David Trezeguet (Juventus) with 15 goals.