Juve looking to overcome injuries to keep up with Inter

Injury-plagued Juventus face a stern test of their title credentials when they host Fiorentina in the standout match of the weekend.

Claudio Ranieri’s team closed the gap on leaders Inter Milan to just three points last weekend but things could have been even better for them had they come away from Rome’s Olympic stadium with three points instead of one against Lazio.

Now they are up against a team that have lost their last two matches and are desperate for a win to reignite their own Champions League ambitions.

Fiorentina were unlucky to come away from the San Siro with nothing last weekend as they went down 1-0 to AC Milan despite having much the better of the match.

And while they are still missing Romania captain Adrian Mutu, Juve will be without David Trezeguet, Vincenzo Iaquinta, Giorgio Chiellini, Mauro Camoranesi and possibly also Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon among others.

And Ranieri says Juve’s participation in the Champions League this season — which was not on their agenda a year ago as they had just been promoted from Serie B — has hampered them.

“Last year we had much fewer injuries. We didn’t have the midweek matches but our preparation was more or less identical and the fact that we’re playing more means that we have almost no time to make little refinements and we can’t do any heavy work,” he said.

It all means that the suspensions that Momo Sissoko and Christian Molinaro will serve against Fiorentina could not have come at a worse time, while in goal Ranieri potentially has a huge problem.

Buffon is not fully-fit while his understudy Alex Manninger has the flu. Even so, Juventus come into this match having been the best team in the league since the first seven games of the season.

They won only two of those, picking up just nine points, leaving them seven points behind Inter and looking in trouble.

However, they have hunted down the Champions and are in striking distance should Jose Mourinho’s team slip up.

And Brazilian forward Amauri, a summer acquisition from Palermo, who has been a revelation this campaign with 11 goals in 19 Serie A matches, is determined his side won’t let up the chase.

“We have to make as few mistakes as possible because anything can happen. We’re only three points behind Inter and we can become kings of Italy again,” he said.

Inter will be looking to make up for last weekend’s debacle in Bergamo where they lost 3-1 to Atalanta in what Mourinho described as their worst performance of the season.

They bounced back in midweek with a 2-1 Italian Cup victory over Roma at the San Siro, although their winner was offside and the visitors had a stonewall penalty waved away by the referee.

And they will have to do without star forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic for the visit of stuggling Sampdoria as the Sweden international is suspended.

AC Milan travel to Bologna looking to try to end Sinisa Mihajlovic’s nine-match Serie A unbeaten run since taking over the reins at the beginning of November.

It will be Kaka’s first match since turning down a prospective move to Manchester City which should give Milan a boost.

They will have to improve on recent performances, though, where they have been unconvincing, as Bologna have become very difficult to break down under former Inter number two Mihajlovic, drawing seven times and winning two of his games in charge.

Down the other end of the table, the bottom two go head to head as Reggina entertain Chievo.

Fixtures

Saturday

Juventus v Fiorentina, Reggina v Chievo

Sunday

Bologna v AC Milan, Genoa v Catania, Inter Milan v Sampdoria, Lazio v Cagliari, Lecce v Torino, Napoli v Roma, Palermo v Udinese, Siena v Atalanta