History: Piacenza FC

Founded in 1919, Piacenza soon merged with Giovine Italia, the other team in the northern Italian city, to form the club Piacenza FC. The team has spent most of their time in the lower leagues, although in 2001/02, their seventh season in Serie A, they recorded their best-ever position, finishing 12th.
 
Regional leagues
Their early years, and indeed most of the time since, saw them in a completely different position, normally restricted to travelling between the third division and the regional leagues.

Play-off defeat
Piacenza first reached the relative heights of Serie C in 1936 and two years later they almost made it to the second division, missing out on promotion only after losing a play-off match against Fanfulla Lodi. It was to be almost 30 years before Piacenza finally made it into Serie B for the first time, a feat they achieved in 1969. Sadly, their stay was short-lived and the 1970s and 80s were once again spent in the lower divisions.

Inzaghi dicovered
Finally, in the 1990s, Piacenza made it to the top flight of Italian football. Thanks in no small part to the managerial skills of Gigi Cagni and goalkeeping ability of Massimo Taibi, they first won promotion to Serie A in 1992/93 and although they lasted only one season they immediately won back their place in 1994/95 when, with local boy Filippo Inzaghi scoring 15 goals, they were promoted as Serie B champions.
 
Foreign signings
Although Inzaghi – later to star for Juventus FC and AC Milan as well as with the Italian national side – soon moved on, Piacenza's squad was bolstered by the acquisition of Brazilians Carvalho Amauri de Oliveira and Francelino Matuzalem da Silva, the club's first-ever foreign signings. Even so, Piacenza only just held their own in the top flight, twice finishing 14th and needing a 3-1 relegation play-off win against Cagliari Calcio in 1996/97 and twice 13th before being relegated after finishing bottom of the table in 1999/2000.

Tense finale
However, once again they managed to win promotion the very next year, finishing second in Serie B. Back in the top flight, the 2001/02 season had a nail-biting climax for Piacenza. Facing Hellas-Verona FC in the final match of the season with the sides level on 39 points, both teams knew that defeat would mean relegation. Piacenza rose to the challenge and secured safety and 12th place in Serie A with a 3-0 victory.

Hubner's goals
Two of the goals that day came from Dario Hubner, who – amazingly for a side at the wrong end of the table – ended up as joint top scorer in Serie A. Hubner scored 24 of Piacenza's 41 league goals with most of the others coming from Carmine Gautieri, who managed seven, and Eusebio di Francesco, who contributed six.

2001/02:  12th in Italian league.