Just like watching Little Brazil

Fans fed up with the predictability of Serie A's race for the Scudetto, which hasn't decreased despite Juventus' couple of lacklustre displays before they thrashed Ascoli 3-1, may find solace in turning to the struggle for survival or, further down Italian football's food chain, the Serie B promotion fight.

As regular readers of this column will know, calcio's second division is literally a poor relative of its wealthier (although heavily indebted and estranged) cousin, and as such should not try to emulate its crumbling grandeur by rushing for TV network cash, but rather accentuate its character which, by the way, suits the Italian mentality much better.

	“	It all starts in defence: if you give up few goals you can score many, not the opposite. ”
		Mantova caoch, Mimmo Di Carlo

As Juve's appalling home gates for Champions League matches show, a local derby is more likely to attract a good crowd than a match against some middle-of-the-road European side.

Serie B has a lot of local rivalries to offer, and some great stories waiting to be told. One of them, without doubt, is Mantova's.

Located in the middle of the northern flatlands on the banks of the river Mincio, in the south eastern part of Lombardia, Mantova is a beautiful city of 50,000 with a rich history of arts and poetry. The birthplace of Latin poet Virgil and of the Renaissance-era dominant Gonzaga family.

It recently topped Italy's city rankings for quality of life, beating other small-sized towns like Bolzano, Lecco and Trento, with the big boys way behind - Rome in 68th place and Milan 82nd - and when you take a walk around the centre's tiny streets and fascinating squares it is easy to understand why.

Mantova, however, had long ceased to be a soccer power before AC Mantova gained Serie B status last spring, following successive promotions from Serie C2. The original club had been denied access to League football back in 1994 because of financial irregularities, and the newly formed AC Mantova 1911 had then been forced to begin its journey back from the Eccellenza - Italy's fifth division.

Until the summer of 2004, however, it appeared that Mantova were going to be just another club from the Pianura Padana, the flatland either side of the Po river, with limited ambitions and perhaps the hope of one great season - almost every side has one - before getting back down to reality. In June 2004, though, Fabrizio Lori bought a majority stake in the club, and a new era began.

Then 35, Lori, the owner of a booming plastic-making company, immediately made an impact in town, with his permanent tan, designer stubble and long hair, coupled with a penchant for casual clothing - traits which have made him the city's most eligible bachelor.

Lori is a different kind of hands-on owner, in that he sits on the bench for every match but has apparently never uttered a tactical word of advice to his balding coach Mimmo Di Carlo, and has single-handedly restored the Mantovans' pride in their football club.

Not the free spending type, which is consistent with his business practices, Lori went as far as promising he'd cut his hair if the team won promotion to the Serie A this year. Whether that was because he felt there wasn't any chance of this happening, or was just a good-natured challenge to his players, whom he joins in a celebratory, hand-in-hand jump in front of the home end after each win, it now seems one lucky barber in town can start polishing his shears. Mantova are leading Serie B, level on points with Atalanta and with a home match against Vicenza coming up on Friday.

The squad that won promotion last year was strengthened by a few players Di Carlo knew well from his time as a midfielder with - mostly - Vicenza in the late 90s, and the mix of old and new, installed on Di Carlo's playing system, proved unstoppable in the first half of the season.

Mantova won their first seven home matches and only lost their first game on December 20 at Pescara. By then, the whole of Serie B had been forced to take notice of a side that by playing an up-tempo, direct but enjoyable style of football, with a heavy reliance on mistake-free defending, had seemed to relish every chance to go out on the pitch and continue last season's displays.

Di Carlo employs two old-style wingers who can create and provide crosses, stretching the pitch and leaving strikers Gabriele Graziani, son of former World Cup winner Francesco 'Ciccio' Graziani, the experienced Paolo Poggi and top scorer Alessandro Noselli with a better chance for one-on-one situations. The Mantova strikers have so far been able to exploit these conditions to the fullest, especially on high balls.

They're not Serie B's most prolific side, with 32 goals in 26 matches, but have conceded only 18, fewer than any other side, corroborating Di Carlo's belief that 'it all starts in defence: if you give up few goals you can score many, not the opposite'.

Playing in front of good crowds - 15,000 attended the match against Torino - at the old Stadio Martelli, not far from the town's centre, Mantova have added a stylish touch by choosing to wear an all-white kit with a diagonal red stripe on the front of the jersey. It brings to mind Mantova's heydays back in the 50s and 60s, when they also wore dark red jerseys, and it is one of Italian football's most recognizable strips. But the change strip, all yellow with a green stripe, has an ever deeper meaning.

When Mantova first gained promotion to the Serie A, at the end of the 1960-61 season, the club had also completed a meteoric rise from the then-Serie D, under the coaching of Edmondo Fabbri, who would then go on to become Italy's national team coach and henceforth endure the shame of 1966 World Cup elimination at the hands of North Korea.

Before Mantova played in Lucca during their successful Serie C campaign, a newspaper there coined the term Piccolo Brasile (Little Brazil), as the newly-crowned world champions were all the rage for their creative play and attractive style, and Mantova used to wear all-blue away shirts that looked similar to Brazil's at the 1958 World Cup.

The nickname stuck and the Piccolo Brasile went on to enjoy seven seasons in the top flight - in different stints - fielding famous players such as a young Dino Zoff, Karl-Heinz Schnellinger, Gigi Simoni, Torbjorn Nilsson, goalkeeper William Negri and Gustavo Giagnoni.

Mantova never climber above ninth place in any of their seasons, but had a heavy hand in determining the outcome of the 1966-67 Scudetto when they defeated Inter 1-0, thanks in part to Inter goalkeeper Giuliano Sarti's howler from Di Giacomo's cross, while Juventus, who had started the day a point behind Inter, beat Lazio.

Mantova last graced Serie A in the 1971-72 season, when local rivals Verona pipped them for survival by one point, and haven't been back since. But Di Carlo's squad has the best chance since the Fabbri era to leave a mark on the town's football history.

Despite a decrease in effectiveness in the last month and some slips in the 'goals against' column, with three away defeats in a row including that first one at Pescara, Mantova still lead the division and have just added a couple of players during the January transfer window. Striker Mirco Gasparetto and winger Alessio Sestu are a welcome boost for a thin squad which had started to look slightly tired as the season wore on and winter weather made many pitches hard to play on.

Mantova look well conditioned, but Di Carlo had seen one of his most influential players, right winger Vincenzo Sommese, go down to a long-term injury earlier this month, while defender Diego Pellegrini decided to move to Australia - the lucky sod. Di Carlo was willing to welcome any help that came his way, despite his suspicions that newcomers could spoil the squad's vital chemistry.

Mantova's strength of character, along with a flair for the dramatic, was again on show last Saturday, on a day when the weather had made it a struggle just to reach the city, which had been blanketed by a heavy snowfall the previous day.

The Stadio Martelli pitch had been covered and looked playable, but soon after Mantova and Piacenza kicked off the field turned into a chopped up surface which posed problems for thise players who tried to kick the ball along the ground. The bobbly pitch was surely responsible for Poggi's miss a few minutes in, but did not stop Piacenza's centre-forward Cacia from scoring from the penalty spot just before the interval.

With play on the flanks less effective than usual, the centre halves troubled by the profligate Cacia's opportunistic running and playmaker Massimo Brambilla crowded out in midfield, the groans from the five or six thousands who had braved the bitter cold kept growing, as a first home defeat loomed.

High balls pumped Graziani's way did not appear to work until three minutes from the end, when the lanky Graziani got on the end of Tarana's brilliant left-wing cross and pulled Mantova level.

Two minutes later, ref's assistant Cuttica signalled that Piacenza defender Bocchetti had fouled Spinale inside the area, and Mantova were awarded a penalty which would be the last kick of the game. Scoreless since October 22, when he had netted a penalty against Cremonese, Noselli took the spot kick but saw his line drive deflected wide by Piacenza keeper Cassano, which made for the most thrilling moment of Mantova's season so far.

Mantova's challenge will now be blending in the newcomers and keeping the spirit and on-pitch organization that has carried them so far. They're as good as the other promotion contenders, but have a smaller squad than most, and it will be the last couple of months that separate the sides who're definitely going to fight until the end from those who are losing steam.

It would be a pity if Mantova were to lose out on promotion after such a great start to the campaign and by grabbing one of those three promotion places it would give us the chance to see how Lori looks with his new haircut, a sight which would surely rival that Piccolo Brasile yellow away strip for novelty value.

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