This has been a turbulent week for Juve which will come to its end in Siena on Sunday afternoon. After the seven winless games in a row, the board finally axed Ranieri. This was the first time in the last 40 years that Juventus decided to do such a thing. this decision was not a surprise, after all, the Tinkerman lost the trust of all in the club, from players all the way to the director. Plus, the fans have never accepted him the right way. Club’s legend and Lippi’s former assistant in the national team, Ciro Ferrara will replace him until the end of this season. He spent time training the youth squad and should be only a interim solution. This game will mean mothing to Siena, their goal is accomplished couple of weeks ago and they can’t wait for break to start. This has been a great year for Sennesi. Namely, although they lost couple of excellent player last summer, young expert Giampaolo pushed his players to the limit and this small Toscana town will spent another year in the elite.

Juventus are not giving up. They ran through Rome, sealed new three points and stayed seven points adrift of Inter. Runners-up place is theirs, Italian Cup return leg against Lazio remains the only hope to win a trophy this season, but we feel that Juventus are the only club in the world whose fans are fully aware that things are not good enough. Ranieri and the players are still dreaming of the title, Inter will arrive to Olimpico soon, but, to be frank, we don’t think they will manage to turn the tables around. Besides the fact they had an incredible injuries scenario this season, Juvenstus still didn’t lose hope. The squad is tired in these final stages, but no one should, nonetheless, take them for granted. Chievo are the sizzler of the second term. They have lost only one game, completely undeservedly, we might say, to Fiorentina. This is a different team under Mimmo di Carlo, they took a lot of points outside Bentegodi, and they have finally won in Verona in the last round. Minimal-margin win over Palermo is an excellent result, the fans are in raptures after the recent development on the standings. Namely, Chievo are six points clear of Torino who are inside the dropping zone. Nothing is over yet, but Veronesi have a great chance to secure the survival.

The pick of the round and one of the classics will be played at Olimpico. Roma will host Juventus, one of their biggest rivals. The tension is always high before this match, the stadium will be packed, thus Juventus will come across a hostile reception. Juventus are second and they will probably stay there come end to the season but they are not giving up on the title race. Despite the numerous injuries, the team are doing well but the fans are not satisfied. The atmosphere before the match was heated by Baptista’s statement that Italian referees were helping Juventus. The statement caused a lot of controversy as it was Inter who profited the most from the refereeing mistakes.

This match comes at a bad time for wounded Juventus. The Bianconeri put up a good fight against Chelsea and their fans were satisfied with team’s efforts but they were still eliminated. They missed their chance in the first leg as they failed to score away goal. The injury-plagued hosts had their chances in the return leg, they were twice in front but they couldn’t hold on to the lead. Bologna beat Sampdoria, experienced Di Vaio scored a hat-trick and thus hinted that he could return to the national team. He is more than impressive this season, his 19 goals gave the Emiliani 15 points out of total 26. The win took some pressure off the team as they are out of the relegation zone but they are still in for a difficult fight.

Chelsea come to Turin with one-goal advantage from the first leg and the Blues were definitely satisfied with a 1:0 win as the most important thing in the knockout stages is not to concede in the first leg. Hiddink had an extra two weeks to prepare his team, the situation with injuries is improving, while the Dutch coach used this time to work on the team’s fitness. He was not satisfied with the way his team defended the lead in the match at Stamford Bridge and admitted that his team had had problems in the second half. Many pundits believe that Juve will be eliminated because they failed to score an away goal. Bianconeri lost the last seven away games in the Champions League knockout stages but he often managed to overturn the deficit at home. They failed to do this against Liverpool and Arsenal but you should also bear in mind that Juventus trashed Real Madrid few years back.

Another chapter of derby della Mole, or the clash of local rivals, Torino and Juventus. Torino managed to play their best games in these games in the past. If Torino were able to play the other games like they play against Juventus, they would never be involved in the relegation fight. However, the Bulls usually do well against Juventus and then lose to much weaker team afterwards. Derby comes at a bad time for Juve as they will play Chelsea in the Champions League and that is a very important match for the club. They are in the midst of the very busy schedule and they lost to Lazio in Coppa Italia semi-finals in midweek but they scored a goal and still have good chance to reach the final. Juve will have a clear situation before this match and they will go for the win if Inter fail to beat Genoa.

First semifinal game of Italian Cup will see Juventus travel to Rome. Regardless of the fact that this is not so important a competition, the temperature in the capital is growing; plenty of tickets have already been sold so the hosts will definitely do anything to reach a triumph. The qualification to UEFA Cup through this competition is also a realistic option for Lazio, that is if they manage to eliminate Juventus and of Inter beat Samp in the other semifinal game. If they make it to the finals, the place in Europe will be reserved. Juventus struggled against Napoli in the last round, but they managed to go through thanks to a penalty. They will try for the tenth time in the history of the club to win the trophy.

This is definitely one of the most interesting matches of the round. Juve enter the match a bit tired after the match with Chelsea. The Old Lady was better than the Blues but they conceded an early goal and were unable to return into the game. Even though they still have the chance to go through, they missed a good chance to create an advantage before the return leg. Napoli are in the worst possible crisis, their fans are furious, while the team is in the training camp since Sunday’s defeat to Genoa. It was expected that coach Reja would be sacked but president De Laurentis declined Reja’s resignation and he will lead Napoli in this match.

Juventus snatched a win in Catania as they played with ten men more than 80 minutes. Christian Poulsen took advantage of opponents’ defensive mistake and scored the winning goal. Sampdoria drew with Siena at home and they can now only try to stay at a safe distance from the relegation zone, while they will try to focus on UEFA Cup and Italian Cup.

Catania lost another one away game and that chronic disease of theirs is something out of manager’s powers. Last year Baldini, this one Zenga, both tried everything, but the team performing great at Massimino is completely a different team when travelling across Italy. Sometimes there are some logical explanations for bad away record, sometimes the performance is better than the results. Also, refereeing mistakes have often been harmful for Catania. Still, when we put it all away, Elephants are hopeless outside their grounds. In example, they were done harm in Bergamo since Massari’s goal was disallowed for a non-existing off-side situation, but that was the only way Catania came face to face with the rivals’ keeper. Juventus are out of form, bad performances culminated with defeats to Udinese and Cagliari. They also lost their runners-up seat and significantly cut their title bid. Reaching the Cup semifinals brought little consolation, they have managed to eliminate Napoli after 120 minutes and penalty shoot-out, but we are left wondering if Ranieri had lost his compass. He fielded his regulars in a completely irrelevant competition, injury list has become gigantic and the Champions League Chelsea tie is just around the corner. After Cagliari game, Juve lost Chiellini and Zanetti, after Napoli, without De Ceglie. Del Piero who is now 34 years old spent 120 minutes on the ruined turf and his fitness is hard to be guessed upon.