Juve face Roma test
Juventus defender Martin Caceres says the Italian champions must forget their Champions League success over Celtic and concentrate on dealing with a potentially "ruthless" Roma on Saturday.
Juve's comprehensive 3-0 victory over the Scottish champions in Glasgow midweek gave them a huge boost ahead of the second leg in Turin in three weeks' time.
But Caceres insists the Scudetto remains their priority, and resumes by defending their five-point lead over Napoli against a Roma side which, he believes, could turn recent off-field events to their advantage.
"Roma are a great team. They've recently changed their manager and this usually produces greater desire and ruthlessness," Uruguayan Caceres told juventus.com.
"But we'll be going there for the win."
He added: "Our first objective is clearly to defend our title, but we'll have one eye on the Champions League, even though we know it will be tough to go all the way."
Roma sacked veteran coach Zdenek Zeman two weeks ago and replaced the 65-year-old Czech with Aurelio Andreazzoli on a caretaker basis.
Andreazzoli's first full game in charge, however, ended in a 3-1 defeat away to Sampdoria last week, dropping Roma to ninth.
Roma have injury concerns after striker Pablo Osvaldo quit training early Thursday with a recurrence of pain in his right knee while midfielder Daniele De Rossi also left early as a precaution due to tightness in his left calf.
Midfielder Claudio Marchisio, meanwhile, is set to miss out with an injury although Juve coach Antonio Conte should welcome back midfielder Kwadwo Asamoah after the Ghanaian's recent return from the Africa Cup of Nations.
So far, and despite the resurgence of AC Milan -- who are still 14 points off the leading pace -- Napoli have been widely regarded as the only real challengers to title-holders Juve since the festive break.
Napoli are bidding for only their third Serie A title but welcome a resurgent Sampdoria two days after they suffered a shock 3-0 defeat to Viktoria Plzen in the Europa League.
Comments