Round 20 preview: Half way house

It's hard to believe that we are half way through another Serie A season once again, but we are and this round sees a host of top fixtures that entertained us day one of the bella campionato del mondo. Up first sees a great encounter, Napoli v Fiorentina at the San Paolo. Excitement is cranked up to ten in Naples at the moment following their demolition job on Juventus and the viola won't be looking forward to stepping into this caldron. However, that was arguably their feeling last year and they ran out 3-1 victors. In addition to that this Fiorentina is packed with quality despite their poor start to the season. In other words this is a potential banana skin for the Azzurri. If they do win they'll be one point off the top, although not many will expect that to last given that Milan head down South to Lecce. However, given Lecce's win in the Stadio Olimpico against Lazio last week the home side will be encouraged to complete an impressive double to begin the New Year.

One team bringing up the rear at the moment is Inter and they will expect to win at home to Bologna on Saturday night. Bologna have been impressively solid this season and would sit in 10th place had it not been for their 3 point deduction for financial irregularities. They held Inter in week one and would do well to do so again. Roma were also held in week one but unlike Inter they must venture out of their home turf in this round to Cesena. Cesena have picked up seven points in their last three matches to move them up to 17th place in the table and news of a possible link with Adrian Mutu may well galvanise them to go onto survive this season. Roma however will be looking to make up for the three points they literally threw away at Sampdoria last week. Juventus will also be looking to make up for lost time and they host rock bottom Bari at home. After recording a solid win against Catania in the Coppa Italia midweek and with the return of Gigi Buffon. Anything but a win here for the old lady surely removes them from the title race and begins parallels with last seasons fall from grace. Lazio may well fall into that category too if they fail to beat Sampdoria at the Olimpico on Sunday afternoon. Sampdoria are missing their central defensive pairing of Gasteldello and Lucchini while Lazio are without Matuzalem and Tomasso Rocchi. 

Elsewhere, Genoa host an inform Udinese with Di Natale and Sanchez currently on fire, while Brescia host Parma as they look to dig themselves out of their hole. Finally Cagliari host Palermo in the battle of the Islands. The latter will look to win after a draw in Chievo to really launch their season which is simmering bellow the main challengers at the moment. Still, Palermo are unbeaten in the league since their 1-0 loss to Napoli in early December and are once again making themselves a top six calibre side.