Few would have imagined Juventus reaching the winter break top of Serie A ? or Udinese being just two points behind them
After four months and 150 completed matches, the Serie A season began. That, at least, is how it will appear in the record books: with the fixtures that took place over the last two evenings listed officially as round one of the 2011-12 campaign. These were the games that ought to have taken place over the final weekend of August, but which were postponed on account of a "strike" that wasn't technically a strike at all (players continued to train as normal and some teams even held friendlies), sparked by disagreement over a new collective bargaining deal.
The delay provided many fixtures with a very different context. Novara v Palermo was supposed to be Stefano Pioli's first game as manager of the Sicilian team; instead it was Bortolo Mutti's. Cesena's opponents Atalanta had gone from a newly-promoted side with -6 points to one who would be joint-fifth were it not for the deduction. And rather than being an intriguing match-up between teams with mixed expectations, Udinese v Juventus was now the fixture that would decide who would finish 2011 top of Serie A.
Milan had thrown down the gauntlet a day earlier, moving ahead of both with a straightforward victory at Cagliari, but they knew they could not stay alone at the top for long. A win for Udinese would bring them level on points with the Rossoneri, while a draw would do the same for Juventus. Victory for the visitors would allow them to leapfrog Milan and reclaim sole possession of first place.
This was not where either team had expected to find itself. The Juventus manager Antonio Conte has always demanded the maximum of his squad, but he has also sought to remind fans at every juncture that this was a team coming off consecutive seventh place finishes. Udinese's Francesco Guidolin, meanwhile, had insisted that his primary goal after the summer departures of Alexis S�nchez, Gokhan Inler and Cristi�n Zapata was to secure top-flight survival.
And yet, perhaps aided by avoiding each other on that opening weekend, both teams reached this fixture in startling form. Juventus were the division's only remaining unbeaten side ? enjoying their longest such run to start a top-flight season since 1949. Udinese were just two points behind Juve in the standings and boasted the best defensive record in the league.
Their home form was particularly imposing ? Guidolin's team having won all seven of their league games at Stadio Friuli to date, racking up 14 goals and conceding just two. Antonio Di Natale had scored in each of his last 10 home games and been rested in Sunday's game against Lazio ? coming off the bench only for the last 25 minutes ? with this fixture in mind. In conditions that Guidolin would describe as "polar", the stage was set for a man whose name translates (with a little artistic licence) as Christmas Tony.
Or at least that was how it had appeared, until Juventus commandeered the performance. Just as he had against Napoli ? another team who play with a three-man defence ? Conte met fire with fire, rearranging his own side into a 3-5-2. From the outset Arturo Vidal, Claudio Marchisio and Andrea Pirlo dominated the middle of the park, starving their opponents of possession. With Simone Pepe and Alessandro Matri tracking back diligently up front, the ease with which they broke up Udinese's counterattacks was striking.
But if Juve succeeded in their aim of shunting Di Natale into a cameo role, their own attacking forays lacked invention. Shorn of the guile of the injured Mirko Vucinic, Juventus were struggling to create any real opportunities, and yet an awareness of Udinese's threat prevented Conte from throwing caution to the wind in pursuit of a victory. By the time Mariah Carey was warbling out over the PA system at half-time, fans on both sides might have been thinking that the thing they really wanted for Christmas was a goalscoring opportunity of note.
This was, as La Repubblica noted, a game "to delight the palates of those hungry for tactical struggle, but which provided little gratification for those demanding emotion". Guidolin may have disagreed ? sent off late on for protesting against a decision ? but such anxiety was not replicated on the pitch as the game finished goalless. From the sideline, Conte seemed to encourage his players to slow the pace even further towards the end.
A draw was something both teams could be pleased with ? a fact reflected by Thursday morning's front pages. The Turin-based Tuttosport celebrates a "show of force" from the "Juventus battleship". The Udine-based Messaggero Veneto leads with "A golden draw, Udinese stay up high".
Milan will have been delighted too, of course, not least the manager Massimiliano Allegri, who had insisted during a slow start to the season that his team would find their way back to the top of the table before the turn of the year. With negotiations ongoing over a new contract ? Allegri is reported to want ?500,000 (�416,000) a year more than he is at present being offered ? closing the six-point gap that at one point existed between his team and Juventus will have done nothing to weaken his hand.
But certainly both managers involved on Wednesday night seemed content: Guidolin reminding reporters that this was his team's third game in six days while Conte reflected on the season as a whole. "We have shown we can be a Team with a capital T," he said. "If when I signed for Juve someone had told me that we would finish the year top of the table and unbeaten I would have had them committed."
Then again, if someone had told him back then that the season's first round of fixtures would be played from 20-21 December, he would probably have said the same.
Talking points
Don't look now, but Internazionale are only eight points off first place. Lest we forget, last year they were 13 points behind the leaders at the winter break (albeit with two games in hand) and went on to finish second. Of course, matching Leonardo's run of 17 wins in 23 Serie A games would take some going, even if Claudio Ranieri does have some previous when it comes to unlikely charges up the table. For now he will be happy to have finally got the defence sorted ? Inter have conceded once in four league games, all of them victories ? and maybe also to have unleashed the beast in Ricky Alvarez at last. The Argentinian had put in a man of the match performance against Lecce even before he capped it with his first goal for the club late on.
Incidentally, Inter did actually go a goal down in that game before recovering to win 4-1. In the time between going a goal behind and then equalising through Giampaolo Pazzini, they hit the woodwork four times. Four.
More emphatic still was Napoli's win over Genoa, a 6-1 rout of a Genoa team who had previously only conceded a modest 12 goals all season. It was a timely response from Walter Mazzarri's team after a week in which bizarre rumours circulated suggesting he had attempted to resign following the win over Villarreal that put Napoli through to the Champions League knockout stage. He had already rejected such claims out of hand this week, but did not hang around to discuss it any further ? disappearing without speaking to reporters at full time.
Atalanta were the other big winners, thumping Cesena 4-1, and yet many reporters were less interested in what was happening on the pitch than off it ? scrutinising the stands to see how supporters would react to the arrest of Cristiano Doni this week. And certainly it does seem that some stances are beginning to change. Famous banners referencing Doni's "heads held high" gesture had been taken down. In their place were others: "Atalanta, our crazy love"; "[President Antonio] Percassi, all the fans are with you, don't give up"; and, perhaps poignantly, "No mercy for those who betray us".
It was a disappointing end to a generally promising first part of the season for Lazio, who could only draw 0-0 at home to Chievo. But despite another insipid performance from the Frenchman, Djibril Ciss� will apparently not be allowed to leave in January. "Ciss� is not available for transfer," said the manager Edy Reja.
Results: Atalanta 4-1 Cesena, Bologna 0-2 Roma, Cagliari 0-2 Milan, Inter 4-1 Lecce, Lazio 0-0 Chievo, Napoli 6-1 Genoa, Novara 2-2 Palermo, Parma 3-3 Catania, Siena 0-0 Fiorentina, Udinese 0-0 Juventus
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/dec/22/juventus-milan-udinese-serie-a
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