Two months, nine games left to play, and everything is still to be decided. Except for Sassuolo, who are just waiting for mathematical promotion to Serie A, predicting the outcome of the Serie B season remains a fool’s errand.

Cesena and Spezia, who meet at the Dino Manuzzi on Saturday afternoon, both fit neatly into the category. Unbeaten in over a month, the Seahorses are sixth in the table with 41 points, right in the thick of the play-off races and arguably the most in-form team in the division with three wins in their last five outings – a record matched only by Sassuolo.

The Bianconeri are just four points adrift of fourth-placed Cremonese, but such are the fine margins in Serie B, they have only a two-point buffer over ninth-placed Bari, the first team outside the play-off spots.

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 so far.

Cesena needed an own goal to rescue a point away at Brescia on Saturday, but Michele Mignani chose to see the glass half-full.

“The draw is fair. It certainly wasn’t a spectacular match, but now the points are worth double,” the Cesena manager said.

“Regret is only warranted when you’ve created more opportunities than your opponent. Our first-half performance was subpar, we need to improve.”

Improvement is drastically needed in front of goal, where Cristian Shpendi’s drought shows no sign of ending. After scoring 10 goals in the first 15 games of the season, the Albania Under-21 star hasn’t found the net since December 1, while January signing Antonino La Gumina scored twice in his first six appearances but failed to register in the past three outings.

Thirteen points clear of Cesena in third place, Spezia have no such issues. Francesco Pio Esposito bagged his 14th goal of a superb season as the Ligurians breathed a new lease of life into their automatic promotion hopes with a 3-2 win over second-placed Pisa, to cut the gap to Filippo Inzaghi’s team to three points.

Luca D’Angelo’s men have now won eight points in four games against Sassuolo and Pisa and they may not have to navigate the treacherous waters of the play-offs to secure promotion.

The manner of the win against Pisa was as significant as the result itself as Spezia twice came from behind, drawing on one of their main strengths – set-piece prowess.

Salvatore Esposito restored parity with a stunning free-kick just before half-time and Przemyslaw Wisniewski’s winner also came from a dead-ball situation, the 23rd time this season that Spezia have scored from a set-piece, an astonishing figure which amounts to over 50 percent of their 45 goals.

Beating Pisa was particularly sweet for D’Angelo, who managed the Nerazzurri for a combined five seasons over two spells before being sacked in June 2023, but the 53-year-old insisted there was still work to do for Spezia.

“We must focus on Cesena now,” he said.

“We’re three points behind, but we haven’t caught up with Pisa yet. This team knows how to react well in difficult situations. We still have nine games left, and we’ll see where we end up.”

Three points against Cesena on Saturday will have a big say in that.

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