2004–05 Serie A Explained

Competition:Serie A
Season:2004–05
Dates:11 September 2004 – 29 May 2005
Winners:-
Relegated:Bologna
Brescia
Atalanta
Continentalcup1:Champions League
Continentalcup1 Qualifiers:Juventus
Milan
Internazionale
Udinese
Continentalcup2:UEFA Cup
Continentalcup2 Qualifiers:Sampdoria
Palermo
Roma
Continentalcup3:Intertoto Cup
Continentalcup3 Qualifiers:Lazio
League Topscorer:Cristiano Lucarelli
(24 goals)
Highest Scoring:Parma 6–4 Livorno
Matches:380
Total Goals:960
Average Attendance:26,098
Nextseason:2005–06
Prevseason:2003–04

The 2004–05 Serie A (known as the Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons) was the 103rd season of top-tier Italian football, the 73rd in a round-robin tournament. It was expanded to contain 20 clubs, which played 38 matches against each other, rather than the 34 matches in previous seasons, while relegations were reduced to three. The Coppa Campioni d'Italia was presented to the winners on the pitch for the first time.

The first two teams qualified directly to UEFA Champions League, teams ending in the third and fourth places had to play Champions League qualifications, teams ending in the fifth and sixth places qualified to UEFA Cup (another spot was given to the winner of Coppa Italia), while only the last three teams were to be relegated in Serie B, the Italian second division, following a regulations change.

Juventus finished as champions and Milan were runner-ups. Udinese qualified for the UEFA Champions League for the first time in its history. Palermo, in its first Serie A campaign in over 30 years, finished in sixth place, qualifying for the UEFA Cup for the first time in its history. Roma qualified for the UEFA Cup as the runners-up in the Coppa Italia because the cup winner, Internazionale, had already qualified for the Champions League.

Two teams, Brescia and Atalanta, were directly relegated to Serie B, while the third relegation place was to be decided among three teams (Fiorentina, Bologna and Parma), counting only the so-called classifica avulsa; that is, the table composed solely by the six matches among the three teams. Bologna and Parma had fewer points, and played the relegation tiebreaker. The tiebreaker was won by Parma, who were defeated 0–1 at home but won 0–2 away in the return match. This method of classifying teams on equal points totals was abolished for the 2005–06 season but returned for the 2022–23 season.

Personnel and sponsoring

TeamHead CoachKit manufacturerShirt sponsor
Atalanta Delio RossiAsicsPromatech
Bologna Carlo MazzoneMacronAmica Chips
Brescia Alberto CavasinKappaBanca Lombarda e Piemontese
Cagliari Daniele ArrigoniA-LineTerra Sarda
Chievo Maurizio D'AngeloLottoPaluani/Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International
Fiorentina Dino ZoffAdidasToyota
Internazionale Roberto ManciniNikePirelli
Juventus Fabio CapelloNikeSky Sport/Tamoil (in UEFA matches)
Lazio Giuseppe PapadopuloPumaParmacotto
Lecce Zdeněk ZemanAsicsSalento
Livorno Roberto DonadoniAsicsBanca Carige
Messina Bortolo MuttiLegeaCaffè Miscela d'Oro, Regione Siciliana/Air Malta
Milan Carlo AncelottiAdidasOpel
Parma Pietro CarmignaniChampionChampion
Palermo Francesco GuidolinLottoProvincia di Palermo
Reggina Walter MazzarriAsicsGicos, Stocco&Stocco
Roma Bruno ContiDiadoraMazda
Sampdoria Walter NovellinoKappaErg
Siena Luigi De CanioLottoBanca Monte dei Paschi di Siena
Udinese Luciano SpallettiLe Coq SportifKia Motors
(*) Promoted from Serie B.

League table

Relegation tie-breaker

See also: Derby dell'Emilia. ----

Bologna relegated to Serie B.

Top goalscorers

RankPlayerClubGoals
1 Cristiano LucarelliLivorno24
2 Alberto GilardinoParma23
3 Vincenzo MontellaRoma21
4 Luca ToniPalermo20
5 Mirko VučinićLecce19
6 Andriy ShevchenkoMilan17
7 AdrianoInternazionale16
Mauro EspositoCagliari
Zlatan IbrahimovićJuventus
10 David Di MicheleUdinese15
11 Alessandro Del PieroJuventus14
Francesco FlachiSampdoria
13 Valeri BojinovLecce, Fiorentina13
Tommaso RocchiLazio
Vincenzo IaquintaUdinese
Christian VieriInternazionale

References and sources

External links