Juventus made significant strides towards retaining the Scudetto at the weekend by beating fellow title chasers Inter and opening up a 3-point gap between 1st and 2nd place.
Influential Juve midfielder, Pavel Nedved, seems intent on keeping his team firmly in pole position and has attracted much praise from all over Italy for his displays this season.
Inter havebenefited from an in-form Christian Vieri, after narrowly missing out on the title last season and it looks set to be a tense battle with their city rivals Milan for first or second place. Juventus have the most straightforward run in of the top three, although they have to play away to Milan late in March.
The Milan derby takes place in mid April, which could prove to be a pivotal point for both Nerazzuri and Rossoneri. All top three teams are still competing in the Champion’s League with Milan taking full points from their second stage matches. Both Inter and Juventus are second in their groups but will have to battle hard to make it to the quarterfinals.
Roma, despite average form in Serie A, registered a good win in Valencia to give them some hope of qualification, although the form of other Group B sides seems to go against them.
It seems that Lazio and Chievo are the best positioned to battle it out for the remaining Champion’s League place, while Udinese, Parma, Bologna and Roma have realistically set their sights on UEFA Cup qualification.
Of the sides scrambling to beat the drop Torino look the most ill-equipped having scored the least goals of any top-flight side in Europe and are currently lying bottom of the table. Also, unless they make a dramatic turn around, Como and Piacenza seem destined to share the same fate.
Out of the rest of the teams competing to avoid relegation Atalanta, Brescia and Empoli look to have the best staff on board to do the job but whether that translates to safety at the end of the season is another matter.
Despite a mediocre season Roma are still competing in the Coppa Italia and have to defeat Lazio, and possibly Milan in the final, if they are going to gain any silverware this season.
LEAGUE STANDINGS
