Juventus won the first leg 3-1 but Fulham have not yet given up hope of progressing to the next round of the Europa League. The Italians have quite a few problems in goal since both Buffon and Manninger are injured but can Fulham take advantage of the circumstances?
The Italian Serie A will have a cracking derby on Saturday, Juventus vs Roma. Both sides have been in pretty good form lately: Juventus are 5th after being held to a draw at Brescia in midweek but they won at AC Milan a fortnight ago while Roma have won the derby against Lazio last week and also beat Fiorentina 3-2 on Wednesday. After a poor start to the season Roma found their feet and moved up the table in sixth place.
Fulham produced a memorable comeback last night, they beat mighty Juventus 4-1 after being 1-0 down and 4-1 down on aggregate. It was an unforgettable game for the Cottagers but do they have what it takes to go all the way and lift the trophy?
Fierce rivals Juventus and Fiorentina will clash on Saturday but the two teams are in quite different states of mind. Juventus are six points behind leaders AC Milan so they would be keen to get a win and stay in the title race while Fiorentina are lying in 13th place after a very poor start to the season.
Fourteen matches were played until now in the Italian Serie a and the title race seems to be closer than ever especially since defending champions Inter are down in 5th place. The top five looks like this:
1 AC Milan 30 points
2 Lazio 27 points
3 Juventus 24 points
4 Napoli 24 points
5 Inter 23 points
The Italian newspaper Tuttosport announced today that Rafael Benitez is very close to reaching an agreement with Juventus Torino. Reports suggest that he might take Torres, Mascherano, Kuyt and Skrtel with him to Italy.
The Serie A strike has been called off so the weekend games will go on as planned. The biggest one will be on Sunday between 3rd place Juventus and 2nd place Lazio, a battle which will tell who has the strength to stay in pursuit of leaders AC Milan.
In 2006, after the "Calciopoli" scandal, Juventus were relegated and the title was assigned by the FA to Inter. Since then there facts have been discovered that show a similar behavior from Inter's officials: unnatural links with referees and FA officials. Now Juventus made a formal request asking the FA to cancel Inter's 2006 title.
The Italian Serie A will re-start on January 6th, here is how the top of the table looks like before Christmas (17 games have been played):
1. AC Milan -36 points
2. Napoli -33 points
3. Lazio -33 points
4. Juventus -31 points
5. Roma -29 points
Who will win the title this season?
