You would be hard-pressed to pick the biggest surprise package in Serie B this season. Is it Filippo Inzaghi’s Pisa, who look set to return to Serie A for the first time in over three decades? Or is it Spezia, giving the Tuscans a run for their money in the race for the second automatic promotion spot?

And what of fourth-placed Catanzaro, who have been punching well above their weight courtesy of Pietro Iemmello’s goals? Any list must also include Cesena and Juve Stabia, who square off at the Dino Manuzzi on Sunday afternoon as Serie B returns from the international break.

Unbeaten in almost two months, the Seahorses are seventh in the table with 42 points, right in the thick of the play-off race and arguably the most in-form team in the division with three wins and three draws in their last six outings – a record bettered only by league leaders Sassuolo.

One of the surprise packages of the first half of the season, Cesena’s hopes of a second promotion on the bounce looked dead and buried after a run of five defeats in six matches in December, but they have lost just once in 2025.

Winning five points in three games against Pisa, Spezia and fourth-placed Cremonese only cemented their status as promotion contenders, like the Stabians, who are a point ahead of their rivals in sixth place.

Leonardo Candellone’s double secured a much-needed win against Modena before the international break after the Wasps’ momentum had been checked by a run of two defeats and a draw in the previous three weeks.

Candellone’s brace was particularly timely as the main, arguably only, criticism levelled at Guido Pagliuca’s team this season was their reliance on Andrea Adorante.

With 12 goals this campaign, the summer signing from Triestina is firmly in the race for the Pablito, the trophy awarded to the division’s top scorer and named after the late Paolo Rossi.

Only three players have scored more than Adorante in Serie B this season, with Spezia teenage sensation Francesco Pio Esposito and Catanzaro talisman Iemmello netting 14 each and Sassuolo winger Armand Lauriente bagging 13.

Dismissed as a flash in the pan after racking up eight points in their first four games, the Stabians established themselves as play-offs hopefuls as early as October and not even a seven-game winless run as autumn made way for winter managed to derail their season.

A second promotion on the bounce would be an extraordinary achievement for Pagliuca’s team, who finished 10 points ahead of Avellino in Serie C’s Girone C last season to clinch a return to calcio‘s second tier after a four-year absence.

Four points clear of ninth-placed Palermo, a win in Cesena would firmly swing the pendulum of the play-offs race their way.

But Cesena are also effectively playing with house money this season and are eyeing a second consecutive promotion after romping to the Girone B title in Serie C by 21 points last term.

After seven years of turmoil, the Bianconeri are firmly looking up rather than over their shoulders and returning to Serie A for the first time in a decade is firmly the focus in Michele Mignani’s first season in charge.

Cesena won the Supercoppa Serie C when the two met in May, while Juve Stabia prevailed in the reverse fixture in December. Whatever happens on Sunday, rule these two out at your peril in the race for promotion.

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