For hundreds of thousands who arrive each year in the blessed - sometimes accursed - isle of Sicily, the port of Messina is but a gateway from mainland Italy. For those arriving by train, truck or car to be ferried across the straits this is a place not to tarry but through which to proceed onwards into an island that boasts elegance and antiquity. Messina is regarded as the industrial ugly sister, the scrappy, rebuilt harbour town ravaged by an earthquake in 1908 and allied bombardment during the second world war.

But now the tremors are being felt not beneath Messina but under the apex of Italian football, and the fault line is being drawn by Messina's team beneath Serie A in one of the most remarkable of football fairy tales.

Tonight the town's newly promoted and barely known football club, who lie remarkably in second place, face the leaders, mighty Juventus, Italy's "Grand Old Lady", arguably the country's most internationally esteemed and renowned institution. Corriere dello Sport, one of Italy's three dailies devoted to football, describes the match as Partitissima , "the ultimate match".

If Messina win tonight, they rise from 11 to 14 points and go top - which would seem highly improbable had they not already dismissed last season's runners-up, Roma, 4-3 on September 19, then the reigning champions, Milan, 2-1 on their own San Siro turf three days later. "They played good football," conceded Milan's baffled coach Carlo Ancelotti that night. "They punished us and deserved to win the game."

The city of Messina is accordingly besotted, bedazzled and bewitched; the place is in a state of effervescent disbelief. Red and yellow bunting is strewn along its boulevards; statues have been adorned with scarves; pavements and telephone kiosks painted red and yellow. Some 10,000 Sicilians will converge on Turin for tonight's game: 30 buses have been chartered from all over Italy and 8,000 will journey the full length of the peninsula from Messina, more than a thousand of them leaving by train last night on a 15-hour journey. Car ferries have for days been bedecked with red and yellow flags and planes have been booked up for weeks. "Until now it's been like a dream," says Domenico Giampa, one of those who scored against both Roma and Milan, after final training on Thursday, "but, if we win on Saturday - if - then it begins to get serious."

Before now Messina etched their way into mainstream football consciousness only because Italy's golden boy Salvatore Schillaci originated there before making his name at Juventus. Messina were last in Serie A in 1965. From there the team descended into obscurity, so much so that until 1998 they played in the Campionato Nazionale Dilettante - the amateur league. Then began a relative climb, through Serie C2 and C1, the fourth and third divisions, but not far. Exactly this week last year Messina were bottom of Serie B, staring once again into the abyss.

Then arrived a coach who this week celebrates his first anniversary at the club, Bortolo Mutti. Mutti was taking a break at home in Bergamo, from a career at Napoli and Reggina, and was in two minds whether to take on this daunting task. But he came back south, something happened, and happened suddenly: Messina thundered their way to fourth place and promotion and thence began what Mutti called this week "Cinderella's arrival at the ball".

The man who lured Mutti to Sicily had taken over the club as owner and president two years previously - Pietro Franza, a local businessman who, with his mother, Olga, runs a chain of interests including hotels and ferries and who, at 35, became the youngest club president in Serie A.

"I think our strength lies in the fact that we have been so far down, that our blood is on the ground," he says, in the club's modest, dockside headquarters adjacent to that of his business. "It's not my team, it's the city's team," he insists. "Messina is full of a people gone mad with joy; everyone's involved; old ladies, children - why, even the judges are talking about football." (And this during a week when the man convicted of killing the legendary anti-mafia judge Giovanni Falcone provoked sensation and outrage by being allowed out on parole.)

But, setting the tone for his manager's singular success, Franza counsels: "I'm also worried. We're only a little club. There are going to be difficult times ahead. We must be humble, careful."

Messina, its club and its newspapers are brimful with theories as to why these extraordinary events have transpired. Their press officer Christian Argurio points out that "usually when teams get promoted, they go crazy in the market place", whereas eight of Messina's starting XI remain from last season's Serie B line-up. "They've played together, they know each other and have found that balance between being conscious of their strengths and knowing that they have to play to the maximum every game."

Then there is Mutti himself. He presents an intriguing figure: conservative, serious, reserved, devoutly Catholic. "What we have achieved," he says, "is the result of hard, hard work. We are at a certain moment, when the talent of individuals is combined into a group, a team. And we will not allow our ideas to become bigger than we are. The supporters can afford to dream. We cannot."

The ethos of sobriety manifestly filters down into Mutti's side as it completes training at its careworn former stadium on Thursday - they have moved this season to a newly built ground on the edge of town. "He has his rules, he has his way," says the poster boy of Messina's team, Alessandro Parisi (a future international, says Franza), "and to break them would be to leave the group. As it is, the group is holding. It's a moment, a convergence." The team captain, Sasa Sullo, says. "There is no risk of our dreaming too much; all we can do is give our all to each game."

"Our dreams are subject to our work," adds the striker Arturo Di Napoli.

Juventus are tonight beset by problems in attack, without Alessandro Del Piero or David Trezeguet - and even menaced by injury to the man on whose shoulders the burden falls, their new Swedish star, Zlatan Ibrahimovic. But, cautions Mutti, "Juventus are Juventus, whoever plays."

And there is also the matter of the future of the way in which football is watched across southern Italy. Even more than the other two in the northern iron triangle - Milan and Internazionale - Juventus is a national team, an all-Italian obsession. And seldom are Juventus more avidly followed than among its supporters in the south, where every town and village boasts its "Juve Club", including Messina.

Even Parisi admits frankly: "I'm a Juventus fan." (He nearly joined the club over the summer but was spurned at the last moment, "and I am very happy to be here now".)

However, these deep loyalties are being tested not only by the success of Messina but of other southern clubs: Palermo on the other side of the island and Lecce in Puglia, who play each other tomorrow. And it is this week impossible to find a Juventino in Messina who will not be supporting his local team tonight.

A Juventus man, Carmelo Picciotto, keeps the cafe La Dolce Vita next to the cathedral but has hidden away his Juve regalia under the bar this weekend, "because I have to support Messina".

Alessandro Rizzo is a member of his local Juventus Club in the nearby coastal town of Villafranca: "I have supported Juventus all my life, since I was a little boy. But, if I could, I would take time off work to go to Turin this weekend to support my Messina. I have already booked time off when Juve come here, to watch them but support Messina."

"For 40 years," says the veteran Messina supporters' organiser Angelo Ilardo, "we have had no serious Sicilian team in Serie A. So it's obvious that among my genera tion, there'd be a pull towards the big northern teams. But now, it's equally obvious that the kids, instead of wanting that Juve shirt, will want a Messina one instead."

An unusually low cloud lifts over the straits of Messina; the rain eases, the thunder calms and that inimitable tangerine light strokes the hills down which the city tumbles to the sea, across which the mainland comes into full view, beckoning north.

In the Casa della Pizza behind the harbour a crowd has gathered to watch a revived Italian national side on TV, "but we don't really care - all that matters is Saturday, when we will go crazy at both ends of Italy," says the bus driver Giancarlo Valerio, ready to board the train to Turin on Friday night with his son.

In the Bar delle Rose - headquarters of the "Red and Yellow Youth" - Salvatore Crupi insists that "success is not just a matter of manager and team; there is also passion". And the passion is beginning to overheat - even the sound of scooters outside is drowned - as fans gather for a last briefing before their long journey north.

There was un'emergenza after the state railway company cut the number of special trains from two to one, leaving hundreds of fans with tickets but no means of travel, and frantic talks were going on last night between the "Ultra" fans, the police and the railways. "They cannot walk and they cannot stay at home," says Crupi, adding that "I've left my job and my girl to follow Messina this season".

"Nowadays it's bread and football, that's all," pledges Antonio di Blasi. "No time for the bread," laments Gianpaolo Bonsignore.

"We've gone from a nightmare into paradise," says Giovanni Silipigni, "That's what makes us strong."

"Dreaming?" concludes Crupi. "Of course we're dreaming. We've survived the worst that football can do; people were tearing up season tickets in the street. Now we're happy, dangerously happy."

Ascent of the beautiful south

Serie A now has a record number of teams from the foot of the country

Messina
Points: 11
League position: 2nd
They had to wait 39 years to get back to Serie A but Messina have returned in style. After five games they are second, two points behind Juventus. The midfielder Domenico Giampa and striker Riccardo Zampagna are proving that they can play well and score in the top flight after some good seasons in the lower divisions. The left-back Alessandro Parisi, hailed as the Roberto Carlos of the Messina strait after scoring 14 goals last season, has already caught the eye of several top clubs and Italy's coach Marcello Lippi.

Palermo
Points: 9
Position: 5th
The supermarket magnate Maurizio Zamparini bought the club, back in Serie A after 30 years, last season and helped finance a team that went on to dominate Serie B. Coach Francesco Guidolin has moulded an extremely organised side and the Sicilians have the second-best defence in Serie A, conceding only two goals - one more than Juventus. The goals of Luca Toni have made him a crowd favourite at the Renzo Barbera stadium and now a full Italian international: he scored the winner in a 2-1 win over Norway last month.

Lecce
Points: 8
Position: 7th
Lecce are arguably playing the most entertaining football in Serie A but it is no surprise since they appointed Zdenek Zeman as coach last summer. The Czech, who has also coached Roma and Lazio, is a purist of attacking football. Lecce are top scorers so far with 12 goals in five games and they have several promising players. At 18 Valeri Bojinov is already a star of the Bulgarian national team and has scored four goals in five games. The Finn Alexei Eremenko, son of a former Soviet international, is also proving his great talent, as is the midfielder Cristián Ledesma, the captain at 22.

Cagliari
Points: 9
Position: 6th
The former Chelsea idol Gianfranco Zola's return to his native Sardinia helped Cagliari to win promotion to Serie A in his first season back. The 38-year-old extended his contract last summer and has potent attacking partners in the Honduras international David Suazo, rated the fastest player in Serie A, and Mauro Esposito, who has scored three goals in the first five games. 'I played in every part of Italy but winning in the south is special,' said Esposito.

Reggina
Points: 6
Position: 12th
Having avoided relegation in the final match of last season, Reggina appointed the 43-year-old Walter Mazzarri as coach in the summer. Under his guidance the club at the southern tip of the Italian peninsula have started well, losing only at Milan. The striker Emiliano Bonazzoli has rediscovered his scoring touch and his prowess in front of goal, combined with the passionate support of the Granillo stadium, should ensure that Reggina avoid relegation again this season. Paolo Menicucci