Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
Another guest article now and Filippo Festuccia returns with an extensive preview of all the action in Week 27 of Serie A. You can follow Filippo on Twitter here @FilippoFest. Over to you Filippo
After a disaster of apocalyptic proportions in all European competitions, Serie A comes back with another crucial week. Week 27 will feature two of the biggest matches you can think of and fierce showdowns in the relegation zone, for three days of Italian football that will shape the way the season is going to go.
Sunday night will see one of the most historical rivalries in Europe write another chapter, as Juventus and Inter face off in Turin. Inter were credited as the team most likely to stop Juve’s winning streak – Bologna already did it last week, but it doesn’t mean Inter will not be a hard matchup for Juventus. Juve excels at breaking technical, pacey teams, and Inter is the exact opposite: eleven tough men, with great emphasis on ball recovery. If they can play Juventus’ game at the same level as their black-and-white rivals, we have a match.
Juventus can draw two different conclusions from their Champions League match against Bayern Munchen. They can look at their first half – when they were frightened and passive against a clearly superior team – and throw everything away. Or they can look at their second half, and specifically at their passionate reaction that led to a great comeback, and be confident in their ability to turn even the most unbalanced match around. If Juventus wins, they keep Inter out of the Champions League fight – possibly for good – and send a clear message to Napoli for the title run. If Inter wins, it’s chaos. A draw doesn’t particularly help anyone, but it’s the most likely outcome (ok, betting sites lean more in Juve’s favour, but it’s close).
The other big match will take place on Monday, featuring two teams who really need a morale boost to keep going after being eliminated from the Europa League. Fiorentina will host and Napoli will visit, in what we can easily call the moment of truth for these two teams. Napoli has a title challenge to fuel, and a nagging question to answer: are they really a good team, or is it just their three key players (Hamsik, Insigne and Higuain) doing all the work? Is it enough to keep competing at high levels? Fiorentina faces similar doubts, as they got outclassed and outplayed by Tottenham. Both teams like playing fast-paced, open football and, while Napoli has more stars in their lineup, Fiorentina has a more systematic approach that could pick apart Napoli’s weaknesses. The problem is, Napoli defends very well (they employ drones and GPS during training to correct defensive mistakes) and it’s nearly impossible to contain the sheer offensive force of Higuain and Insigne.
Both Napoli and Fiorentina will suffer the pressure if Roma beats Empoli on Saturday. The red-and-yellow Wolves have reacted wonderfully after losing to Real Madrid and they’re back on track, with the best recent form of the whole league. Empoli is an exciting team, but it lacks the physical grit they would need to do some real damage to Roma. Of course, they have a solid reputation of being giant-killers, but this doesn’t look like the best game for them. Milan, meanwhile, will have a great opportunity at closing the gap with the top 5, if they beat Torino – a team struggling at creating goal chances. Should Milan lose, either Lazio or Sassuolo, facing each other on Monday, could re-enter the Europa League fight from the back door.
Sunday will be a field day for the teams trying to avoid relegation, with five tense matchups offering a lot of potential drama. Palermo (three points clear of relegation) will try to find its new identity against Bologna, who as we’ve seen once again last week are one of the best teams in Italy right now. Carpi is fighting tooth and nail for every point available, and Atalanta are only six points clear of 18th place: a loss would be an outright disaster for both teams. The two Verona teams, Chievo and Hellas will face respectively Genoa and Udinese, who in turn faced each other last week, just like Chievo and Hellas. Confusing, I know. This is the thick of the fight, with Chievo being relatively safe (they have 31 points, with 37-40 you can reasonably expect to avoid heartbreaking surprises), Verona setting up a comeback from last place, Genoa and Udinese in that weird position where you have to live day by day and play every game as if it was a Champions League final. Then we have Sampdoria against Frosinone: 17th and 18th, with just two points between them. Frosinone hasn’t been clear of the relegation zone since November, while Sampdoria has been freefalling for quite a while, with the least points of any Serie A team in the past two months.
The full list of fixtures:
Saturday, February 27
Empoli-Roma 17:00 GMT
AC Milan-Torino 19:45 GMT
Sunday, February 28
Palermo-Bologna 11:30 GMT
Carpi-Atalanta 14:00 GMT
ChievoVerona-Genoa 14:00 GMT
Sampdoria-Frosinone 14:00 GMT
Udinese-Hellas Verona 14:00 GMT
Juventus-Inter 19:45 GMT
Monday, February 29
Lazio-Sassuolo 18:00 GMT
Fiorentina-Napoli 20:00 GMT
Thanks Filippo, make sure to keep an eye out for his review for Week 27 next week and subsequent articles between now and the end of the season.
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