Week 21 presents the league with two marquee clashes this weekend, with firstly on Saturday night Roma traveling to Turin to play Juventus. Juventus have been awful of late, loosing to Chievo, Milan and Catania in their last four Serie A outings. Roma conversely have turned their season around under Claudio Ranieri and sit currently in third place, compared to Juve's fifth. Roma come into this game off the back of beating Genoa 3-0 at home as they seem to have solidified themselves defensively at the moment. Still, the Turin giants will turn it around some when, and last season in this fixture beat Roma comfortably by 2-0, including a stunning Del Piero free kick. Indeed, Juve have just signed play maker Antonio Candreva from Livorno on loan, the highly promising Italian International who has blossomed this season. But, the real problem for Juve this season has been the injury of key forwards Iaqinuta and Trezeguet, as Amauri has been poor for the most part. Add into this the problems that Ciro Ferrara has had in fitting the puzzle together, in terms of where to play Diego, it all rounds up to somewhat of a struggle. Saturday night at home to high flying Roma gives them the perfect opportunity to remedy some of this.
In the other big game of the round comes the Milan derby on Sunday night, and it is arguably the most important one for some time. Milan trail Inter in the table by six points, but Milan have a game in hand. Winning this game for Milan would reduce the gap to just three points and put Inter under pressure. Perhaps its fair to say that Milan start as favourites. They crushed recent opponents in Siena, Genoa and Juventus while Inter limped past Siena and somehow clawed themselves back into the game for the second week running at Bari. They demonstrated great resolve in doing so, but against the form of this current Milan side chances like this may not present themselves. Both sides go into the game with injury problems. There will be no Pato for Milan, and no Oddo or Zambrotta but the latter two are less of a concern what with Abate and Antonini doing so well on the wing back positions. Nesta is also a concern, but Inter have troubles of their own too. Samual Eto'o is at the African cup of nations, while Chivu and Motta are out. There are concerns over Dejan Stankovic and Sully Muntari but Estaban Cambiasso is back for Inter. Ronaldinho has promised to be the star of the show. Can he deliever again?
Elsewhere Bari continue their road trip this time playing Bologna away in what should be a tight encounter. Catania host Parma and the latter will look to pick up three points for the first time this year. Genoa are at home to Atalanta, which should ensure that the best side of the Grifoni shows up as opposed to the poor side that does on the road. Napoli head to Livorno and will have to win games like this if they want to hold onto fourth place in the table. Napoli are unbeaten in 13 Serie A games but will continue to be without Ezequiel Lavezzi so German Denis will lead the line again. In the big Sunday afternoon game Fiorentina face Palermo. Separated by one point in the table the winner here could overtake Juventus and move up close to a Champions League berth. The other Tuscan side Siena face 7th place Cagliari at home, while Udinese host Sampdoria as both look to re-ignite their seasons. In the final game Lazio host Chievo and will look to pull themselves away from the relegation zone as soon as possible. They are still waiting for the midfield and defensive re-enforcements and will have to do without new hitman Sergio Floccari in this game as well. Chievo come into this game having just beaten Juventus.
In the other big game of the round comes the Milan derby on Sunday night, and it is arguably the most important one for some time. Milan trail Inter in the table by six points, but Milan have a game in hand. Winning this game for Milan would reduce the gap to just three points and put Inter under pressure. Perhaps its fair to say that Milan start as favourites. They crushed recent opponents in Siena, Genoa and Juventus while Inter limped past Siena and somehow clawed themselves back into the game for the second week running at Bari. They demonstrated great resolve in doing so, but against the form of this current Milan side chances like this may not present themselves. Both sides go into the game with injury problems. There will be no Pato for Milan, and no Oddo or Zambrotta but the latter two are less of a concern what with Abate and Antonini doing so well on the wing back positions. Nesta is also a concern, but Inter have troubles of their own too. Samual Eto'o is at the African cup of nations, while Chivu and Motta are out. There are concerns over Dejan Stankovic and Sully Muntari but Estaban Cambiasso is back for Inter. Ronaldinho has promised to be the star of the show. Can he deliever again?
Elsewhere Bari continue their road trip this time playing Bologna away in what should be a tight encounter. Catania host Parma and the latter will look to pick up three points for the first time this year. Genoa are at home to Atalanta, which should ensure that the best side of the Grifoni shows up as opposed to the poor side that does on the road. Napoli head to Livorno and will have to win games like this if they want to hold onto fourth place in the table. Napoli are unbeaten in 13 Serie A games but will continue to be without Ezequiel Lavezzi so German Denis will lead the line again. In the big Sunday afternoon game Fiorentina face Palermo. Separated by one point in the table the winner here could overtake Juventus and move up close to a Champions League berth. The other Tuscan side Siena face 7th place Cagliari at home, while Udinese host Sampdoria as both look to re-ignite their seasons. In the final game Lazio host Chievo and will look to pull themselves away from the relegation zone as soon as possible. They are still waiting for the midfield and defensive re-enforcements and will have to do without new hitman Sergio Floccari in this game as well. Chievo come into this game having just beaten Juventus.
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