QUOTE
It’s amazing what has happened over the last 12 months in the Italian league, writes Godwin Alegieuno. A movie could be made about the 2004/05 season as no form of football drama was lacking...
…So much so that the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) recently gave it the award of the most competitive league in the world. This from the league that many consider the most boring in the world.
On the pitch, there was excitement and suspense with all the main targets being challenged for until the very last day of the season. The race to be crowned champions was decided in the penultimate weekend of the season with Juventus pipping AC Milan to the title.
However it could be said that the Milan team had other things on their minds considering they were in the Champions League finals otherwise the race would have probably gone down to the wire. Also Juventus took a huge step towards the title when a David Trezeguet goal saw them beat Milan at the San Siro in Week 35.
Even with the title being decided a week early, none of Europe’s other elite leagues showed as much fighting spirit with Chelsea, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Lyon all being crowned champions way before their respective leagues ended.
The race for the final Champions League spot was no less entertaining. However it wasn’t between the usual suspects, Roma, Lazio or Parma, but instead the league saw surprise packages Sampdoria and Udinese challenging for the coveted fourth position.
Even newly promoted Palermo was also in the chase for most of the season but a dip in form saw them drop out towards the end. As for Sampdoria and Udinese, they were pretty much neck-and-neck until the last game of the season where Udinese came out on top with one point to spare.
Still you can’t help but feel sorry for Sampdoria who put up a brave fight until the bitter end. Both teams were consistent throughout the season and you’d feel that they both deserve a spot in the Champions League.
Alas, Sampdoria will have to settle for the UEFA cup.
Some might think that this was the best that it could get but all this was nothing compared to what was happening on the other side of the table. A battle to avoid relegation saw the league’s usually consistent top sides, Lazio, Parma and Roma in the thick of it.
Roma managed to escape on the penultimate day by beating, and in the process relegating, Atalanta.
The final day of the season saw six teams, Bologna, Brescia, Chievo, Fiorentina, Parma and Siena fighting to avoid automatic relegation with Lazio, Lecce and Reggina, with all other results going against them, in with a shout of being involved in a play-off.
In the end, the final relegation spot was occupied by three teams all on 42 points. Fiorentina having the best head-to-head record of the three were safe leaving local rivals Bologna and Parma to duke it out for the right to solely represent the Emilian region in the top flight.
The play-off also had it’s own story to tell. As if it wasn’t enough, Parma had six players, including top scorer Alberto Gilardino, suspended for the first leg at the Tardini causing them to lose the game 1-0.
Yet, they managed to overturne the result to win 2-1 on aggregate, with captain Guiseppe Cardone and the ever present Gilardino entering the score sheet and dooming Bologna to the drop.
A season with so much to remember. The 10-goal thriller between Parma and Livorno that saw season top-scorer Cristiano Lucarelli and young gun Alberto Gilardino net four goals apiece. That week saw an astonishing total of 43 goals scored in the supposed "most defensive" league in Europe.
How about Internazionale’s incredible comeback against Sampdoria that saw them claw their way from two goals down in the 88th minute to win 3-2. But the most incredible of all events was Internazionale winning their first competitive trophy since 1998.
Since the season came to an end, we’ve already seen more than half of the twenty teams introduce new coaches, two teams (Messina and newly-promoted Torino) being expelled from the league due to financial problems and one (newly-promoted Genoa) being demoted two divisions to Serie C1 for match-fixing.
With so much happening without a ball being kicked, one has to wonder what to expect from this whacky league in the coming season.
Godwin Alegieuno
…So much so that the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) recently gave it the award of the most competitive league in the world. This from the league that many consider the most boring in the world.
On the pitch, there was excitement and suspense with all the main targets being challenged for until the very last day of the season. The race to be crowned champions was decided in the penultimate weekend of the season with Juventus pipping AC Milan to the title.
However it could be said that the Milan team had other things on their minds considering they were in the Champions League finals otherwise the race would have probably gone down to the wire. Also Juventus took a huge step towards the title when a David Trezeguet goal saw them beat Milan at the San Siro in Week 35.
Even with the title being decided a week early, none of Europe’s other elite leagues showed as much fighting spirit with Chelsea, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Lyon all being crowned champions way before their respective leagues ended.
The race for the final Champions League spot was no less entertaining. However it wasn’t between the usual suspects, Roma, Lazio or Parma, but instead the league saw surprise packages Sampdoria and Udinese challenging for the coveted fourth position.
Even newly promoted Palermo was also in the chase for most of the season but a dip in form saw them drop out towards the end. As for Sampdoria and Udinese, they were pretty much neck-and-neck until the last game of the season where Udinese came out on top with one point to spare.
Still you can’t help but feel sorry for Sampdoria who put up a brave fight until the bitter end. Both teams were consistent throughout the season and you’d feel that they both deserve a spot in the Champions League.
Alas, Sampdoria will have to settle for the UEFA cup.
Some might think that this was the best that it could get but all this was nothing compared to what was happening on the other side of the table. A battle to avoid relegation saw the league’s usually consistent top sides, Lazio, Parma and Roma in the thick of it.
Roma managed to escape on the penultimate day by beating, and in the process relegating, Atalanta.
The final day of the season saw six teams, Bologna, Brescia, Chievo, Fiorentina, Parma and Siena fighting to avoid automatic relegation with Lazio, Lecce and Reggina, with all other results going against them, in with a shout of being involved in a play-off.
In the end, the final relegation spot was occupied by three teams all on 42 points. Fiorentina having the best head-to-head record of the three were safe leaving local rivals Bologna and Parma to duke it out for the right to solely represent the Emilian region in the top flight.
The play-off also had it’s own story to tell. As if it wasn’t enough, Parma had six players, including top scorer Alberto Gilardino, suspended for the first leg at the Tardini causing them to lose the game 1-0.
Yet, they managed to overturne the result to win 2-1 on aggregate, with captain Guiseppe Cardone and the ever present Gilardino entering the score sheet and dooming Bologna to the drop.
A season with so much to remember. The 10-goal thriller between Parma and Livorno that saw season top-scorer Cristiano Lucarelli and young gun Alberto Gilardino net four goals apiece. That week saw an astonishing total of 43 goals scored in the supposed "most defensive" league in Europe.
How about Internazionale’s incredible comeback against Sampdoria that saw them claw their way from two goals down in the 88th minute to win 3-2. But the most incredible of all events was Internazionale winning their first competitive trophy since 1998.
Since the season came to an end, we’ve already seen more than half of the twenty teams introduce new coaches, two teams (Messina and newly-promoted Torino) being expelled from the league due to financial problems and one (newly-promoted Genoa) being demoted two divisions to Serie C1 for match-fixing.
With so much happening without a ball being kicked, one has to wonder what to expect from this whacky league in the coming season.
Godwin Alegieuno