James RichardsonTuesday January 18, 2005

Paolo Maldini, feeling joyful. On Sunday night, Serie A reached the halfway mark (19 played, 19 to go) with yet more drama in the Juventus v Milan title tussle and plenty of big, important sounding numbers.

Let's start with the 20 years: back on January 20 1985, while teens across Europe frugged merrily to the sounds of Rupert and the Frog Chorus and the original Band Aid, a young fella named Paolo Maldini was taking off his tracksuit in Udine, preparing to make his Serie A debut at the tender age of 16.

Two decades and 437 Serie A matches on, he's still going strong: this season he's Milan's most-used player and this Sunday as he led the Rossoneri out for his anniversary match (against Udinese once again), it was to the appropriate ovation from the San Siro crowd.

"There is no greater joy," he observed afterwards, "than to be allowed 20 years with your team, the team of your home town." Admittedly it's the kind of thing we hear from Anfield all the time, but the Italians still found it quite touching.

Ovations aside, there wasn't much room for sentiment in Sunday's game; Milan were trying to both narrow Juve's four point lead and fend off a Udinese side coming up fast behind them in third place. Udinese had won last season's encounter here and nine minutes in, it looked like déjà vu as the visitors took an early lead - Antonio Di Natale turning and half-volleying a spectacular goal in from the edge of the area.

Milan were stunned but soon fought back with a series of sweeping moves upfield, and half an hour in came the equaliser; Kaká's low cross skipping past Hernan Crespo and on to Andriy Shevcheno for a tap in at the far post.

The second half had barely kicked off before Marek Jankulowski gifted Milan the lead with an own goal on the scale of Prince Harry turning up in a Di Canio outfit; the Udinese defender meeting Clarence Seedorf's speculative cross with a cracking header into his own net.

Jankulowski is said to be heading for Milan come June, and he certainly was in this match. Now a goal down, Udinese kept their heads up and even hit the post through Barcelona target Vincenzo Iaquinta but it wasn't to be; come the final minute Kaká burst through a pack of players to slot home Milan's third and seal the win. "Regardless of what Juve do tonight I'm delighted!" declared tubby tactician Carlo Ancelotti post game. "This was our best performance so far this season."

Milan's win meant Juventus were just one lonely point ahead as they took the field over at Cagliari, a ground where only Milan had previously managed an away win. Manager Fabio Capello chose to start with David Trezeguet (back after three months out with an injured shoulder) upfront alongside Zlatan Ibrahimovic, benching Alex Del Piero (and if, after 17 substitutions in 18 appearances, Alex needed any further clue as to what Capello thought of him, he surely has it now).

As it turned out, a rusty-looking Trezeguet and Cagliari's David Suazo between them blew all the early opportunities to score, leaving the game to settle into the typical format of Juventus matches - the Turin giants slowly smothering the life out of the opposition and anyone lucky enough to be watching, while simultaneously nicking a dubious goal.

In fact, Trezeguet himself featured in Sunday's dodgy moment, playing the ball on for Pavel Nedved from a yard or two offside before the Czech's cross met Emerson's head for a close range opening goal. One-nil down, the Sardinians struggled to find any response until two late substitutions changed the game's momentum. For Cagliari, Antonio Langella replaced Suazo and forced two fine saves from the world's best goalie, Gigi Buffon.

Then Juventus threw on midfielder Stephen Appiah, who trumped an error-filled appearance by giving the ball away, just outside the Juve area, one minute from time. Cagliari gratefully sent a last chance, hail Mary cross winging into the box where - lo and behold - Gianfranco Zola headed just inside the post for the draw. Unsurprisingly Cagliari's Sant'Elia stadium erupted at this most unexpected of equalisers - the ball was some eight feet up in the air when the 5'6 Gianfranco struck it. Moreover, he outleapt Jonathan Zebina, who's almost a foot taller than him, in the process.

"It's like Pelé's header over Burgnich at Mexico '70!" declared the Gazzetta Dello Sport the next day, although Billy the Fish may have been the closer analogy.
Juventus now find themselves just two points clear of Milan, having won just one of their last four league games. The next round sees them host the very beatable Brescia while Milan travel to Livorno, a side revitalised by the arrival of former Rossonero Roberto Donadoni as manager. Last Sunday Livorno were 3-1 victors over Messina, a result which took them to the lofty heights of, er, equal 10th in the process.

Meanwhile, a possibly even more eye-catching encounter awaits over at the Artemio Franchi stadium in Florence, where Fiorentina take on the Roma of Totti, Cassano and above all Vincenzo Montella. Montella's now Serie A's top scorer, which is ironic since Roma tried to peddle him to all and sundry just last summer. Fortunately he's not bitter, and last Sunday scored another two at Chievo to bring Roma back from 2-0 down. The second goal was his best yet - a Totti cross from the other side of the area met by the 'little aeroplane' with an overhead volley while falling over backwards. Voilá!

You can catch more from the smokin' Montella - not to mention the latest antics from Totti and Cassano (although clearly I just have) - when British Eurosport bring you the whole of Sunday night's game live from Florence on, er, Sunday night. Otherwise, see you back here next week for all the excitement of round 20, on your very own computer monitor. God bless us all.