Juve out to defend lead over Roma

Football | Italy

Carlos Tevez and Pogba © Gallo Images

Juventus's newfound lead of Italy's Serie A faces its first test when the champions host Udinese on Sunday four days after a morale-boosting Champions League win.
Juventus took the league lead for the first time last week after Roma, who had set a new Serie A record of 10 opening wins, slumped to a third consecutive draw.
After securing a 3-1 win over FC Copenhagen on Wednesday to relaunch their bid for a place in the last 16 in Europe, Juve seem to have finally turned the corner following a less than spectacular start to the season.
Udinese sit in mid-table having won only five of their 13 games, but veteran striker Antonio di Natale believes that after positive performances in a 1-0 defeat to Catania and, notably, last week's 1-0 home win over Fiorentina, they can force a result in Turin.


"Our game is improving and we showed that against Fiorentina and Catania," said Di Natale.
"It's not going to be easy in Turin, but we'll stick to our gameplan and see how we go."
Udinese forward Thomas Heurtaux, who scored the winner against Fiorentina last week, is fit to start but the Zebrette – who like Juve also play in black and white – will be without Colombian Luis Muriel, still sidelined with injury.
Juventus, meanwhile, could decide to give Fabio Quagliarella a start after the striker, who was an unused substitute in Wednesday's win, scored a hat-trick in an 8-1 friendly win over Serie D side Derthona on Thursday.
Conte, however, will have to do without Ghanaian midfielder Kwadwo Asamoah, who is suspended, and is still without injured Swiss winger Stephan Lichsteiner.
An upset for Udinese would boost Roma's hopes of regaining top spot after a surprising scoreless draw at home to Cagliari last week.
Roma would go top, at least for a few hours, with a win away at Atalanta on Sunday afternoon but coach Rudi Garcia claims the objective this season, having spoken recently of the Italian league title, is a place in Europe.
"We could have won our last three games, but now we're only a point behind Juventus, who like us have had a strong start," said Garcia.
Napoli saw their titles hopes dented last week in a shock 1-0 home defeat by Parma which left them third but six points behind Juve.
And after seeing their Champions League last 16 hopes suffer a huge blow in a 3-1 away defeat to Borussia Dortmund in midweek, Rafael Benitez's men will be looking to bounce back away to a stuttering Lazio on Monday.
Lazio's last win was a 2-0 defeat of Cagliari last month and since then Vladimir Petkovic's men have drawn three and conceded one defeat – a shock 2-0 reverse to Genoa.
Napoli's slip-up last week has provided extra incentive to Inter, who sit only two points off the pace in fourth having slipped up themselves in a 1-1 draw away to Bologna.
Inter face a Sampdoria side that will be looking for more of the same a week after a battling performance against Lazio was tempered by Loik Cana's late leveller for Lazio.
It was Sinisa Mihajlovic's first game in charge as coach and despite Samp sitting in the relegation zone he saw enough to believe his side can fight their way out of the danger zone.
"We've shown what we're capable of and I'm sure we will fight our way back up the table," said Mihajlovic, who quit his post as coach of Serbia last week.