Second Division – Serie B. 20-team league. Top four promoted, last four relegated. Two team were above the rest and seemingly goal-difference decided first and second place, but bellow… the same combination of head-to-head records, followed by play-off was applied for both deciding promotion and relegation. In this league Tie was God… Cosenza was the ‘worst’ with only 10 ties. Ancona was ‘best’ with 23 ties, but they had fierce competition: Parma finished with 21, Monza with 20, 6 teams, the top 3 among them, with 19 ties.
Piacenza did poorly – last with 26 points. Relegated.
Taranto – 19th with 29 points. Relegated.
Sambenedettese – 18th with 31 points. Relegated.
The next 3 teams ended with 34 points and the familiar procedure divided them – the one with best head-to-head record was on top, the other two went to play-off. Brescia and Empoli did not veer from the holly Second Division tradition: they ended 0-0. However, penalty shoot-out eventually produces scores… at least for one team – Brescia won 3-0.
Empoli was relegated – after losing the play-off, they were 17th with 34 points.
Brescia – 16th with 34 points. They barely escaped relegation and only thanks to the penalty shootout in the play-off against Empoli.
Monza – 15th with 34 points. Survived only on better head-to-head record against Brescia and Empoli.
Padova – 14th with 35 points.
Ancona – 13th with 35 points. The pride of Italian football this season: 23 ties in 38 games! Nobody had that many in all top four divisions. Of course, there was room for improvement…
Barletta – 12th with 35 points.
Catanzaro – 11th with 35 points. In mid-table goal-difference apparently was the decisive factor – Catanzaro finished with best goal-difference among those with 35 points and bellow again place was in accord with goal-difference.
Parma – 10th with 37 points. Worse goal-difference – a matter of just one goal – placed them bellow Licata.
Licata – 9th with 37 points. Finished with -1 goal-difference, which was better than -2 goal-difference of Parma.
Messina – 8th with 38 points.
Avellino – 7th with 41 points.
And the next round of fun… 3 teams with 44 points, contesting 1 promotion. Cosenza was eliminated for having worse head-to-head record and the other two went to play-off.
Cosenza – 6th with 44 points.
Cremonese and Ragina played the decisive play-off. Naturally, the match ended 0-0. In the penalty shoot-out Cremonese prevailed 4-3.
After losing the play-off, Reggina was 5th with 44 points. Whether they deserved to be so close to promotion may be questionable (they had the worst goal-difference of the teams with 44 points), but to lose promotion by penalty shoot-out… Would have been great if they were promoted, for Reggina never played top-league football.
Cremonese – lucky 4th and promoted with 44 points. They won the penalty shoot-out,which is more or less the same as winning on roulette – and were back in First Division. Lucky guys.
Udinese clinched 3rd place with 45 points and at least got promoted without further complications.
Bari – 2nd with 51 points. They were too strong to worry over their chances to get promoted, but fought for the first place anyway. Lost it on goal-difference, though… but still they were more than satisfied, since the prime goal was promotion.
Genoa was the Second Division champion this season. They shared the same numbers in almost everything with their rivals Bari: 16 wins, 19 ties, 3 losses, 51 points. So… goal-difference decided first and second. Genoa finished 35-13: +22. Bari had 38-21: +17. The title went to Genoa.
Well, all promoted teams were former Seria A members, so rather familiar return of well known teams. Anyhow, good luck in the top league to Genoa, Bari, Udinese, and Cremonese next season.
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