Milan, Nov 24: Still undefeated this season, Juventus has a chance to move clear of Serie A co-leader Lazio when the teams meet Saturday at the Stadio Olimpico.
Juventus, which beat Palermo 3-0 last weekend, took advantage of Lazio's goalless draw at Napoli to move back to the top of the standings.
“For us this is a game with a capital ‘G,”' Juventus coach Antonio Conte said. “I've been saying for a while that Lazio has the ability to have a top season. We will have to be careful.
“We have grown but none of us want to focus on where we are. Our feet will remain firmly on the ground. I'm hearing a lot of compliments but we still haven't done anything.”
AC Milan and Udinese are both one point behind.
Milan will have to recover from its midweek loss to Barcelona when it hosts Chievo on Sunday.
Milan lost 3-2 at the San Siro on Wednesday, but the manner of the defeat and the flowing football the teams played will do little to dissuade Conte and many others that Milan remains favorite to retain its Serie A title.
However, Milan vice president Adriano Galliani is eager to see the team get back to winning ways after it was held to a goalless draw at struggling Fiorentina last week.
“Saturday night we were happy and we didn't win,” Galliani said. “Against Barcelona it was the same. I hope to have a really awful Sunday night but with a victory this time.”
Fiorentina will take that draw against Milan as a sign of improvement in Delio Rossi's first game as coach. Sinisa Mihajlovic was fired after the Tuscan side lost at Chievo 1-0 in its previous game.
Udinese can move temporarily into first place when it hosts Roma on Friday. Roma is looking for its third straight win, but both those victories came against teams in the bottom three—Lecce and Novara.
“I'm curious to see how Roma will act against Udinese, a team which is doing very well,” Roma coach Luis Enrique said. “I want to see the hunger that we always have to have. I'm very interested in seeing what we manage to do against them.”
Roma's chances could depend on whether Francesco Totti plays. The Roma captain is recently returned after almost two months out injured, but he limped out of training Wednesday with an ankle injury.
Marco Borriello is also a doubt.
Napoli has not had a good run of form lately and had won only one of its past seven matches heading into the Champions League game with Manchester City.
However, Edinson Cavani scored two goals Tuesday to hand Napoli a 2-1 win and what could prove to be a decisive advantage in the race for the knockout stage.
Napoli travels to Atalanta knowing that a win could push it into fifth but a loss could send it spiraling further down a tight table.
Inter Milan, which was held to a 1-1 draw at Trabzonspor in the Champions League, travels to Siena.
Inter beat Cagliari 2-1 last weekend but is still dangerously close to the relegation zone with only 11 points from 10 games.
Also, it's: Lecce vs. Catania; Novara vs. Parma; Cagliari vs. Bologna; and Cesena vs. Genoa.
