Cesena relegated from Serie A following defeat to Juventus

Apr 25, 2012 7:09:00 PM

Mario Beretta's Seahorses have become the first side this season to drop out of the Italian top flight due to their inability to earn a winning result against the table-toppers

Cesena have been relegated from Serie A after their 1-0 home defeat to Juventus on Wednesday.

The Emilia-Romagna outfit went into the clash at the Dino Manuzzi in the knowledge that only a victory would be enough to keep their unlikely hopes of staging a miraculous survival alive.

But, despite their valiant efforts to keep the scoreline at a stalemate, it is now mathematically impossible for Cesena to extend their stay in Italy's top flight into a third consecutive season.

It has been a turbulent campaign for the Seahorses, who have overseen an alarmingly high turnover of players on their books and have made three managerial changes but to no avail.

The likes of Antonio Candreva, Adrian Mutu, Jorge Martinez and Gianluca Comotto were ambitiously snapped up last summer, while they also successfully kept want-away talisman Marco Parolo at the club.

However, the surprise decision not to retain coach Massimo Ficcadenti, who guided the side to 15th place in their first season back in Serie A since 1991, led to further unrest as three more trainers succeeded him.

Former Catania and Siena boss Marco Giampaolo was appointed as his immediate replacement, but he was sacked in October having led the team to just three points in the first nine games of 2011-12.

Daniele Arrigoni, once of Cagliari and Torino, oversaw a promising revival with four wins in his first six games at the helm, but they returned to their winless ways and he was dismissed in February.

Current incumbent Mario Beretta subsequently took charge, but he still remains without a win in 11 matches, with Marco Borriello's late winner at the Dino Manuzzi on Wednesday ending a run of five successive draws.

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