There are two major footballing hotbeds in Italy, located fairly close to each other in the northwest of the country, but while one city is flying the other is in crisis.

In Milan Inter are top of the league and bidding for a fifth straight Serie A title with AC emerging as their closest and perhaps only serious title challengers.

Both are through to the Champions League knock-out stages and face mouth-watering clashes next month against Manchester United and Chelsea.

But just 130km down the road, Turin is in turmoil.

Juventus are the most decorated club in Italian football having won 27 scudetto crowns and twice lifted Europe's premier trophy.

They are a team with a rich history that has boasted some of the sport's greats such as Gaetano Scirea, Michel Platini, Paolo Rossi, Michael Laudrup, Roberto Baggio, Zinedine Zidane and Alessandro Del Piero.

They have also been coached by two of Italy's best ever in Giovanni Trapattoni and Marcello Lippi.

And while for most teams sitting third in Serie A at the halfway stage would be considered a fine achievement, for Juve it is all part of their current crisis.

It's not just that 'The Old Lady of Turin' are third, they are 12 points behind Inter, have just been humiliated 3-0 at home by AC Milan and past month crashed out of the Champions League group stages following successive defeats to Bordeaux (2-0) and at home to Bayern Munich (4-1).

They have lost six of their last eight matches in all competitions and as well as those defeats were beaten 2-1 at home by Catania, who at the time were propping up Serie A.

What's more, Juve have often been lucky this season, not least when goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon made a string of excellent saves to earn them a fortunate 2-0 win over lowly Livorno, the most shot-shy team in the league.

Buffon has been Juve's second best player this season, closely behind centerback Giorgio Chiellini, which says it all about the team's forward line.

But while Juve are in trouble by their own usually high standards, their problems pale into insignificance compared to Torino's.

The club which dominated Italian football in the 1940s, winning five straight titles until a plane crash wiped out almost its entire team, are in serious freefall.

Unlike Manchester United, who suffered a similar fate a decade later, Torino have never recovered from that tragedy and have lived in Juve's shadow since.

But this season has been particularly traumatic following last season's relegation to Serie B.

Torino are the epitome of the instability that dogs many Italian teams and have just made their ninth coaching change in the past four years and four months.

Stefano Colantuono has replaced Mario Beretta, who lasted only five matches having taken over from Colantuono, who began the season in the hot-seat.

Of those nine coaching changes, Colantuono is not alone in having been recalled as Walter Novellino was given two stints and Gianni De Biasi three.

Colantuono is the 20th change over the past decade and the team which sat sixth and in a Serie B playoff place when he was fired, has dropped to 11th and four points out of the playoff picture.