Juve struggle to stay in title race

Ciro Ferrara's Juventus were left facing a mammoth task to recover lost ground after losing pace with Inter in the last round of Serie A matches played during the weekend.

Diego Milito scored a last-gasp penalty as Inter beat Fiorentina 1-0 at the San Siro but Juve came a cropper in Sardinia and lost 2-0 to Cagliari to slip to third place and eight points behind the leaders ahead of Saturday night's clash in Turin.

Juve were leapfrogged to second place by Milan on Sunday night. The Rossoneri also relied on two late Klaas-Jan Huntelaar goals to collect all points at the expense of Catania.

The season is still long but Inter seem well-poised to retain the league title for a fifth successive time unless Juve produce something better than Sunday to get back to business and stop Inter from running away with the league.

With several matches still to go and plenty of other direct clashes coming up, it is premature to write off any team's title chances but one has to be realistic enough to concede that at this stage only Inter can let their main challengers back into the title race.

Juventus had started the season strongly, winning all their opening four matches, including back-to-back wins at Roma (3-1) and Lazio (2-0). Inter, too, were off to a flying start and won four of their first five fixtures, but, unexpectedly, dropped two home points in the season's curtain-raiser at home to newcomers Bari (1-1).

On the sixth day, Inter suffered their only setback so far - a 0-1 defeat to Sampdoria. But Jose Mourinho's side never looked back after that and won seven of their next eight games. Their impressive run was halted by Roma who snatched a 1-1 draw on the 12th day in Milan.

In that same period, Juventus lost three times (vs Palermo 0-2, Napoli 2-3 and Cagliari 0-2) and were held twice at home (vs Bologna 1-1 and Fiorentina 1-1).

That inconsistent run was never going to play favourably for Juventus in their quest to end Inter's long dominance in the championship.

Lately, Milan started coming more and more into the picture after a turbulent period.

Successive draws in matches with modest Bari (0-0) and Atalanta (1-1) were hardly the answers Leonardo's men were looking for after having conceded two defeats in their first five outings, including a 0-4 drubbing at the hands of Inter.

Milan's ascendency got underway with a 2-1 home win over Roma on the eighth day. In that match, they looked dead and buried as the visitors were leading 1-0 at half-time and showing the best football on the day. But a tactical change - striker Filippo Inzaghi on for midfielder Ignazio Abate - did the trick for Leonardo.

Milan then went on to put their Champions League qualification back on track and won six matches from their next seven in Serie A.

Irrespective of their opponents these last six weeks, Leonardo has always kept faith with an attack-minded formation that tilted the balance in his team's favour.

Inter, Milan and Juventus are still not sure of a place in the knockout stages of the Champions League and failure to achieve that goal will obviously deal a devastating blow to the club's coffers and ambitions for the rest of the season.

However, if all three eventually join Fiorentina in the next round, Inter would then have a clear edge over their nearest pursuers in Serie A. Besides a healthy lead, Inter look better-equipped than all the rest in Italy to sustain the double challenge of Champions League and Serie A football.

As things stand at the moment, complacency seems to be the only hurdle Inter would have to clear to retain the scudetto but with Mourinho shouting orders from the bench that seems unlikely to happen.

Serie A statistics

1st away win for Roma since beating Siena on the third day as the Giallorossi came from a goal down to beat Atalanta 2-1 on Sunday. This was Roma's third win in their last five visits to Bergamo. Also, Claudio Ranieri's side are unbeaten in their last four games (three wins and one draw). By stark contrast, Antonio Conte's Atalanta have suffered four defeats in their last five outings.

3 goals scored, three red-carded players and two penalties sum up an ill-tempered derby in which Genoa, the hosts, cruised to a comprehensive 3-0 win over Sampdoria. Genoa's third home win in a row coincided with Samp's fifth successive away game without a win (one draw and four defeats).

5 players - Matteo Contini (Napoli), Giuseppe Biava (Genoa), Fabrizio Cacciatore, Marco Rossi (both Sampdoria) and Fabio Liverani (Palermo) - received marching orders. There were also four penalties taken. Inter-Fiorentina seemed heading to a goalless draw when the hosts were awarded a penalty five minutes from time. Diego Milito made no mistake. Veteran Nicola Amoruso salvaged a home draw for Parma against Napoli by converting a late penalty and in a highly-contested derby, Genoa had two penalties in favour from which Omar Milanetto and Raffaele Palladino found the back of the net.

7 positive results on the trot (three wins and four draws) kept Napoli within sights of a Champions League berth. Last weekend, the southerners held Parma 1-1 away to record their third successive draw. This was Parma's first draw following back-to-back wins over Chievo (2-0) and Fiorentina (3-2).

8 points separate leaders Inter from third-placed Juventus ahead of Saturday's clash in Turin. The Nerazzurri bounced back from an opaque performance against Barcelona by beating Fiorentina 1-0. That victory saw the champions extending their unbeaten run to eight games (seven wins and one draw).

12 winless games in a row (seven draws and five defeats) have left Coppa Italia holders Lazio in the mire of relegation. On Sunday, the Sky Blues could not go beyond a 0-0 home draw with fellow strugglers Bologna to remain one point outside the drop zone. Even bottom side Siena have not recorded a single win since beating Cagliari 3-1 on the second day.

19 goals were scored on the 14th day: 13 coming from the hosts and the remaining six from the visitors. Total number of goals scored so far amount to 352. Milan's Klaas-Jan Huntelaar grabbed the only brace of the day. Apart from the ex-Real Madrid hitman, Giuseppe Greco (Bari) and Alessandro Matri (Cagliari) also came off the subs bench and scored. Antonio Di Natale (Udinese) is still the top scorer on 10 goals.