Juventus Faces Tough Test in Fiorentina
Copyright � 1999 Nando Media
Copyright � 1999 Agence France-Presse
MILAN (December 16, 1999 8:59 p.m. EST http://www.sportserver.com) - Italy's joint league leaders couldn't be in for a more different time this weekend with Lazio at home to relegation strugglers Piacenza while Juventus travels to face Fiorentina.
Lazio is top on goal difference of what is living up to its pre-season billing of being the closest championship on record.
Dubbed the "Magnificent Seven" back in August, only one of those title candidates has since fallen from the saddle: Fiorentina. The others are separated by just five points in the leading positions in the table.
Though Piacenza can always be guaranteed to put up a fight, Lazio should have no major problem taking three points off Gigi Simoni's team, which was beaten 3-0 by Roma in the Italian Cup in midweek.
Lazio's free-kick specialist Sinisa Mihajlovic is back on form - the Yugoslav master-blaster scoring twice in a 4-1 win over Ravenna - while Chilean Marcelo Salas should lead the attack.
Juventus has a much tougher match in store on Sunday night, if only for the bitter hatred which divides the two sets of fans.
The rivalry has not been dimmed by three former Juventus men joining the club: defender Moreno Torricelli, midfielder Angelo Di Livio and coach Giovanni Trapattoni, and Fiorentina can also point to a solid home record.
Unbeaten in 1998-99, though twice defeated during a poor start to the current season, Trapattoni's side is now showing the form in the Serie A that has taken them to the second phase of the Champions League.
Di Livio, who joined Fiorentina last summer after six years in Turin, also has a score to settle after his old club failed to renew his contract.
"Unfortunately, my story with Juventus did not end as I wanted it to," he told reporters. "I think that after so many years I deserved more respect.
"But I'm used to looking forward and now I've only one thing on my mind - Fiorentina."
"It's not for me to say if they were wrong or not to do without Torricelli and me; Juve are top of the table now. But they should certainly have behaved differently to players who had given them so much."
As for Sunday's match, he said: "When I played for Juventus, the away match against Fiorentina was always considered one of the most difficult. We always knew we'd be in a for a real battle."
Roma also faces a scrap as it tries to make amends for losing to Bologna last weekend and slipping from top to third place.
Fabio Capello's side is away to Parma, which has risen almost unstoppably since late September from third from bottom to fourth from top.
Spurred on by the league's top scorer, 10-goal Argentinian Hernan Crespo, it is now ready to swap places with their opponents.
First, the holders must overcome their disappointment at being knocked out of the Italian Cup.
Champions AC Milan, who this week celebrated their 100th birthday, is at home to Reggina, fading fast after an inspired start to its first ever season in the Serie A.
Inter Milan is away to bogey team Bari, its last few seasons having been littered with defeats to the southern club, who will be without injured South African striker Phil Masinga.
