2003–04 Serie A
102nd season of top-tier Italian football / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The 2003–04 Serie A (known as the Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons) was the 102nd season of top-tier Italian football, the 72nd in a round-robin tournament. It contained 18 teams for the 16th and last time from the 1988–89 season. With the bottom three being relegated, the 15th placed side would face the sixth-highest team from Serie B, with the winner playing in the Serie A in the subsequent 2004–05 season.
Season | 2003–04 |
---|---|
Dates | 30 August 2003 – 16 May 2004 |
Champions | Milan 17th title |
Relegated | Perugia Modena Empoli Ancona (to C2 after bankruptcy) |
Champions League | Milan Roma Juventus Internazionale |
UEFA Cup | Parma Lazio Udinese |
Matches played | 306 |
Goals scored | 816 (2.67 per match) |
Top goalscorer | Andriy Shevchenko (24 goals) |
Biggest home win | Internazionale 6–0 Reggina (22 November 2003) Roma 6–0 Siena (22 February 2004) |
Biggest away win | Bologna 0–4 Roma (23 November 2003) |
Highest scoring | Brescia 4–4 Reggina (21 September 2003) |
Longest unbeaten run | Milan 19 games |
Longest winless run | Ancona 28 games |
Highest attendance | 78,334 Milan v Internazionale |
Lowest attendance | 3,774 Empoli v Udinese |
← 2002–03 2004–05 → |
As usual, the top two teams would progress directly to the UEFA Champions League group stage, while third and fourth place would have to begin in the third qualifying round. The UEFA Cup places would be awarded to fifth and sixth place, and the winners of the Coppa Italia.
Milan won their 17th scudetto; Roma impressed and were pushing for the title until the last few weeks of the season; Internazionale only made it to the Champions League ahead of Parma and Lazio on the last day thanks to Adriano, who had been signed from Parma earlier in the season; Lazio won the Coppa Italia against Juventus, handing Udinese the UEFA Cup spot; Ancona were relegated with only two wins, the joint lowest tally ever (Brescia's 12 points in 1994–95 Serie A is still the lowest ever); Empoli and Modena were also relegated; Perugia lost their special play-off, imposed to expand the league, against Fiorentina, who returned to Serie A after a two-year absence.
Ukrainian forward Andriy Shevchenko of Milan was the top scorer, with 24 goals. The 2003–04 league was the last professional season in the career of former European Footballer of the Year and Italian international Roberto Baggio, who finished among the tournament's top ten scorers with 12 goals, and among the all-time top five scorers in Serie A, with 205 career goals. It was also the last Serie A season for Baggio's former teammate Giuseppe Signori, who then moved to the Superleague Greece. Signori ended his career in Italy as the seventh highest scorer ever in Serie A.