All to play for in Serie A

As Serie A reaches its climatic stage of the season; all is left to play for with Lecce continuing their push out of relegation, the race for the final Champions League spot is heating up and the Scudetto race is closer to a knife’s edge.  

Often disparaged as a boring league, each year Italian football is proving its critics wrong and this year has been no different as they take, to the final four games of the season, an open campaign with only two things guaranteed: the fate of Cesena.

Cesena’s fate ultimately was decided on Wednesday evening when Juventus signed them up to campaign in next season’s Serie B season, with a narrow 1-0 defeat on their home ground of the Dino Manuzzi.

One step up on the table and Novara still, mathematically, has a shot of survival but that would mean a 100% run in their final four games and an end to Lecce’s admirable resurgence and Genoa failing to seal three points out of a possible 12.

Since the arrival of Serse Cosmi the Salentini have developed a hunger for survival like no other and they pushed teams to their limits, even thumping Roma and Siena and managing to hold Lazio and Palermo.

The Salentini are now the favourites to secure survival as Genoa look to continue to plummet into the doldrums of the league table.

An equal amount of entertainment is taking place at the top half of the table as no team seems to be cashing in on the lottery for third place, while the highly sought after Scudetto is still up for grabs.

After 35 games the league table from third stands with Lazio (55), Napoli (54), Udinese (52), Inter (52), Roma (50), Catania (46), even mathematically Parma can grab it but their goal difference would have to change remarkably.

Lazio, Napoli, Udinese, Inter and Roma have all claimed to be chasing the final Champions league spot, but no one seems to be taking the bull by the horns and running away with it.

Lazio faltered against Novara, losing 2-1, and lining up the perfect opportunity for Udinese to go joint on points; however, after taking the lead early against Inter, they subjected themselves to a 3-1 loss.

“I would say that the result of Lazio burns.  After the goal we became disunited,” noted Michele Pazienza, on Udinese blog, regarding Udinese failing to take advantage of Lazio’s loss.

The pair will line-up against each other on Sunday at the Friuli Stadium and three teams who will be paying close attention to that result will be Inter, Napoli and Roma the latter two also set to line-up against each other.

With four of the teams set to face each other, a whole change to the table geography could occur; heating up the final three games.

Scudetto search has become more scintillating by the game with the Bianconeri now finding themselves top and Milan in second and four points below.

The pair kicked-off their proceedings on Wednesday evening in which both teams looked to have run out of ideas on how to seize the opportunity.

Ironically it was Andrea Pirlo who squandered the first chance, missing his second penalty on the trot, but it was the undefeated league leaders who broke the deadlock first with an 80 minute Marco Borriello strike.

It almost seemed as if Juventus were to extend their lead over the Rossoneri but the substitute Kevin-Prince Boateng was having none of it as he scored five minutes later to keep the defending champions still on contention.

“Until the mathematical possibilities are wiped out, we will continue to believe and try to fight back,” said Massimiliano Allegri after the match.

Meanwhile, Antonio Conte is looking to write history: “We have an extraordinary opportunity, you could even say unique. The pen is on the table and we can write history.”

Sometimes Serie A may be focused too much on its defensive and technical aspects of the game, but having nearly everything still to play for, in less than a handful of games left, Italian football provides a balanced mix right until the final whistle of the campaign.