Tonight at 8.45PM (GMT +1), at “Luigi Ferraris” stadium in Genoa, there's a part of the Italian football history. Genoa vs. Juventus Turin is not only an important match for the promotion in Serie A, it’s also a total of 36 titles won by the two teams together.

Genoa in particular is the oldest existing Italian club, founded in 1893 by some Englishmen living there for working reasons. There was a doctor like J.B. Spensley, D.G. Fawcus (a manager in a textile firm) and most of all Charles Alfred Payton, British Consul in Genoa: they were pioneers in an unexplored country. The difference between Genoa and Juventus is that the Genoans won their 9 “scudetti” between 1898 and 1924, while Juve –founded in 1897 by a group of students- continued winning until last years. This doesn’t allow us to forget why these two glorious teams are now laying in second division.

Genoa, after its “golden age”, started going up and down between Serie A and Serie B, touching its lowest point a couple of years ago, when the “rosso-blu” won serie B but at the end they were relegated in third division due to a match fixing. Everybody knows what happened last summer to Juventus. Bianconeri were not only relegated with 30 points of penalization (then turned into 9), but their last two titles have also been revoked: the first not assigned at all, the second one assigned to Inter Milan.

Anyway, it’s a good thing that –despite the scandals- this year Serie B increased its average attendance: that’s not only because of Juve (the “bianconeri” recently moved to Olympic Stadium with 24000 seats capacity), but also other big cities’ teams full of history such as Bologna, Naples, Genoa are giving their contribution. Serie B is still far from the successful English second league, the “Championship”, which is the fifth league in Europe for attendance and turnover, but everybody in Italy hopes that this will be a good season, after years of depression.

Just a curiosity: two days ago in the official Juventus website (www.juventus.com) in the presentation of the match it was written that it is very important for the "scudetto". Then it has been updated, then they changed the word scudetto into "promotion"...

We can say it’s a never-ending story between Italy and France in football. It started in 1998, when France won in a penalty shoot-out (World Cup quarterfinals) and continued in 2000 with Trezeguet’s golden goal in European Cup final in Rotterdam. Everybody knows what happened last 9th of July: the draw, 1-1 after 120’, Zidane sent off for headbutting Materazzi, the penalty shoot-out and Fabio Grosso’s run after his decisive penalty.

Last Monday Fabio Cannavaro, the man who captained Italy to victory in Berlin, has been named player of the year by “France Football” magazine. Cannavaro is one of the few defenders to win the award, probably he deserved it but some past events -the way he left Inter for Juventus, the documentary film where he was injected with “Neoton” (a cardiotonic) before a UEFA Cup final in 1999, and an interview in which he justified last year’s match fixing in Serie A- caused another discussion between French and Italians.

“It’s a scandal, Henry scores more than 20 goals per season” said Olympique Lyon’s coach, Gerard Houlliér. According to former “Ballon d’Or” winner, Jean Pierre Papin, Cannavaro “didn’t deserved it; he had a great World Cup, not a great season”. In Italy, many people think it’s envy, as the best French player, Thierry Henry, is just third in ranking.

Anyway, this doesn’t mean that all French are against Cannavaro and all Italians are happy about his victory. In fact, “Ballon d’Or” is based on a vote by European football journalists, one per each country, and the French one gave 5 points –the maximum- to Cannavaro. On the other hand, someone in Italy doesn’t agree with the vote. Especially on the web, especially among Inter Milan, AC Milan and AS Roma fans. “Houlliér, one of us”, we find in FC Inter fanzine “Bauscia”, “Congratulations to Cannavaro, a great defender, but Houlliér is right: Henry should have been awarded instead”, is written in another Italian blog.

Even Juventus fans are angry with Cannavaro, as he left Turin last summer for Real Madrid, and also Spain is involved in the discussion: FC Barcelona forward, Samuel Eto’o, said “It’s a farce”. Of course, Barcelona is the main rival of Cannavaro’s new team.

Looking at “Renzo Barbera” Stadium in Palermo, and all the streets around at about 7 pm, it was clear that Palermo-Inter would have been the main event in the long history of the “pink and black” team. Unfortunately for Palermo, the match was the most beautiful of the season, but Inter deserved the victory even more than it was at the end (2-1).

After Juventus' relegation, there are four teams that can compete with the Milanese in a single match: AS Roma, AC Milan, Fiorentina and Palermo. Well, it has been 12 points for the “nerazzurri” against them and – except for the derby - all matches were away. Tonight, in front of about 40,000 in attendance, with no empty seats and viewers in more than 180 countries watching the game on TV, Palermo was one of the starts in a spectacular “Sunday Night” match. Mancini made the surprising choice of playing Adriano ahead of Crespo. Cruz and Dacourt for Inter, and Biava and Di Michele for Palermo were injured, and among the Sicilians' starting 11 was the young defender Paolo Hernan Dellafiore, an Italo-Argentinean that Palermo signed last Summer, coming from Inter in exchange for Grosso.

After six minutes, Ibrahimovic shot from 30 meters and Palermo’s goalie Fontana (four years at Inter) made a big mistake, letting the ball pass under his hip: 1-0 for Inter. Palermo is suffering, and Inter have incredible ball possession, and then Adriano, after a chip pass from Ibra, comes very close to scoring the second goal, but his strike is out. Minute 45, a cross from the left, a header by Bresciano, and Amauri scores with a volley that hits the goal-post and goes in: 1-1. Maybe Materazzi could have been closer to the Brazilian striker, but his mistake is just a spot on his perfect first half. In the beginning of second half, the two scorers have to leave for an injury, Crespo and Caracciolo replace them. Adriano shows that, when he plays for the team and not for himself, he’s the valuable player we used to know. The problem is that, after his long absence, he cannot run for 90 minutes, but the injury of Ibra complicated Mancini’s plan.

Materazzi hits the same goal-post of Amauri, but he’s not as lucky as him and Corini saves on the line. An Inter counter-attack gives a new advantage to the “nerazzurri” at minute 60’ with French captain Vieira. Palermo is KO, but in the last five minutes Inter suffers and Caracciolo hits another goal-post, but it’s not enough and Inter wins. The MVP is Dejan Stankovic: a wall, not a midfielder!
Now the ranking says: Inter 33, Roma 29, Palermo 27.

Sampdoria-Roma in the name of Totti. The AS Roma captain runs twice with a thumb in his mouth (his way to exult for a goal after his baby’s birth) to celebrate his double to Sampdoria. The “blucerchati” just try to resist, but at halftime Roma is already ahead 3-1, with its leader in a very good shape. Final score is 4-2 for the “red and yellow” team. Everybody in “Ferraris Stadium” clapped to Totti’s second goal (a fantastic volley from the left), even Sampdoria fans: after today’s match the discussion about his refusal to play for Italian National Team is still open. In fact, Totti dedicated his two goals to Platini and Matarrese (Italian League Chairman) that recently criticized his choice. We think that – though National Team should not be refused by anybody - Totti has the right to say no, but at the same time coach Donadoni has the right not to call him once he’s ready. Anyway, now AS Roma is second in the Serie A rankings, and nobody could bet a single Euro for the final win of a third team which is not Inter Milan or Roma.

After the “Calciopoli” scandal, that sent Juventus to “Serie B” and gave an 8 point penalty to AC Milan, everybody claimed Inter Milan would be the team to win the Italian League. The overall opinion is that only AS Roma of World Champions Totti, De Rossi and Perrotta can cause problems to the “nerazzurri”, while all other teams will fight for third place.

On the contrary, after day 12 Inter is on the top with 9 wins and 3 draws, but on the second step of the podium we don’t find the Romans, but the “pink & black” jerseys of Palermo, just 3 points below Mancini’s team. Obviously “Renzo Barbera” Stadium is sold out for Palermo-Inter, the main game of day 13 scheduled for tomorrow, November 26th at 3pm (GMT +1): 850.000 Euros at the box office, a record for Palermo! Everybody is crazy, and the 37,000 seats capacity of the stadium won’t be enough to satisfy the huge amount of requests from the whole Sicily, and the rest of Southern Italy. No problem, it will be possible to follow the match live in two different pay TV Stations (Sky and Mediaset) and a couple of Web TVs.

Inter went through the “Final 16” of the Champions League last Wednesday, after winning a home match against Sporting Lisbon, while Palermo has been heavily defeated by Fenerbache, in a UEFA Cup match where its main players took a rest. Missing tomorrows match because of a "red card", just midfielder Fabio Simplicio played in Istanbul. Chairman Zamparini gave the media a very optimistic forecast: "Palermo will win 4-1" he said. On the other side, World Champion Fabio Grosso keeps a good memory of the two years spent in Sicily, but now he wants to win at Inter. By the way, the Milanese team, after being assigned the "Scudetto" by the Italian FA last July because of the relegation of Juventus, has quickly become the most hated one in the country, replacing the "black and white" of Turin. That's why everybody but the Inter fans root for Palermo tomorrow. Especially people around Juventus - like Del Piero - hope that finally the Sicilians will win the championship. Coach Guidolin says "thanks", but we bet he is not thinking of the “scudetto”, focusing just on the match vs. Inter. Will David defeat Goliath tomorrow? Let’s wait and see…