Nine teams facing fight to avoid dreaded drop

The 2012/13 Serie A campaign is fast approaching its half-way mark.

Juventus are currently racing ahead in the tussle for the scudetto as they lead nearest pursuers Napoli by two points with Inter a further two points behind.

Fiorentina, Lazio and Roma are also well positioned to challenge for a top-three position along with a rejuvinated Milan side who seem to have regained most of their lost confidence lately.

At the other end of the standings, nine teams, sandwiched between six points, have found themselves engaged in a fierce battle to avoid the drop.

Sampdoria were off to a brilliant start on their return to the top flight, winning their first three matches, including victory against Milan at the San Siro in the season’s curtain- raiser.

However, a nine-match winless run (two draws and seven straight defeats) brought Ciro Ferrara’s team back down to earth.

Last week, Samp did well to draw 2-2 away at Fiorentina and move five points clear of the bottom three.

Things are looking brighter for the Blucerchiati now also thanks to a morale-boosting 3-1 derby win over Genoa before beating Bologna at home in their previous matches.

These positive results of late restored confidence in Ferrara and his men and many contend that Samp can indeed finish in a trouble-free mid-table position.

Cagliari experienced a dip in form since suffering a 4-1 hammering to Fiorentina on the 11th day.

The Sardinians are winless in their last five outings and they must stop the rot now or risk dragging themselves in the relegation mire.

Torino, too, need to improve if they are to extend their stay in the Serie A for a second year.

The Maroons have been involved in too many drawn matches so far, seven.

Giampiero Ventura’s Torino have a difficult home fixture coming up as they play hosts to Milan on Sunday.

After that, Torino cross swords with fellow strugglers Genoa (away) and Chievo (home) before the Christmas recess.

Victories in these last two matches could provide a huge breather for Torino.

Chievo, four points behind Samp, have done badly away from home this season (one win and six defeats).

In similar vein, Bologna, who have 14 points the same as Palermo, are performing badly on the road – one win and seven defeats.

Palermo have performed even worse away from their Renzo Barbera stadium as they only managed two draws in eight trips outside Sicily.

Genoa are living dangerously in the bottom three. They only won once (1-0 away vs Atalanta) in their last 11 outings.

More of a concern for Genoa is that they never really got going under new coach Luigi Del Neri who replaced Luigi De Canio on the ninth day.

Bottom two

Siena and Pescara are anchored in the bottom two places of the standings at the moment and their chances of staying up are becoming bleak.

Serse Cosmi’s Siena were docked six points at the start of the season and that did not help their cause too much.

Pescara have lost all their last four outings despite the arrival of a new coach and the chances of keeping their heads above water now depend heavily on the arrival of quality players in January.

Statistics

2nd consecutive away defeat (following the 0-2 reverse to Roma) for Torino as Giampiero Ventura’s men were trounced by Juventus 3-0 at the Juventus Stadium on Saturday. Torino have last beaten Juventus in a derby, hosted by the Bianconeri, in April 1995 (2-1).

3rd straight defeat for crisis-hit Atalanta who on Sunday were beaten by Bologna at the Dall’Ara Stadium. This was Bologna’s second successive home win following the 3-0 success over Palermo late last month. Udinese, mean-while, interrupted a five-match winless run (four draws and one defeat) with a resounding 4-1 home victory over Cagliari.

3rd positive result on the trot (one draw and two wins) for Milan, who left it late to beat Catania 3-1 away last week. Milan’s second away success coincided with the Sicilians’ second home upset of the season. Roma cruised to a third straight win on Sunday as they came from behind to beat Siena 3-1. The upset was Siena’s second at home this season.

5 positive results in a row (three wins and two draws) have kept Napoli two points behind Juventus. On Sunday, Napoli thrashed Pes-cara 5-1 at the San Paolo stadium to hand the latter their fourth successive defeat.

39 goals were scored on the 15th day. Foreigners contributed with 19 goals while there were 15 first-half goals. Milan forward Stephan El Shaarawy is still the leading scorer with 12 goals.