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Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri will be hoping his team’s recent Serie A slump is a blip rather than a sign it is slipping out of the race for the top six when it hosts runaway leader Napoli on Sunday.
Allegri’s seventh-placed side has lost ground on the European places in the last two weeks after back-to-back defeats to Lazio and Sassuolo and is up against a Napoli team that will be smarting from its Champions League exit.
Juve is awaiting a ruling by Italy’s top sports body over the club’s appeal against a decision by football authorities to dock it 15 points this season following an investigation into the club’s transfer dealings.
If its appeal succeeded and the points penalty was cancelled, it would jump to third on 59 points.
Napoli has one win in its last five games, a run that includes league and Champions League defeats to AC Milan and is winless in its last three games in all competitions.
It heads to Turin with injury doubts over several players, including Mario Rui, Amir Rrahmani and Matteo Politano, while forward Giovanni Simeone is out with a thigh injury, but it can take comfort in its 14-point cushion over second-placed Lazio.
Lazio will be the first of the top teams in action when it hosts 11th-placed Torino on Saturday.
Maurizio Sarri’s men have cemented their hold on second place in recent weeks with four wins in a row and are currently five points ahead of AS Roma in third.
Lazio will most likely be without Ciro Immobile after the striker fractured his rib and hurt his back in a car crash in Rome on Sunday. Sarri will also be without suspended midfielder Danilo Cataldi.
Roma, which has tightened its grip on third place by opening up a three-point gap on AC Milan in fourth with three wins in a row, travels to an Atalanta side desperate to get back on track after two defeats and a draw in its past five matches.
Simone Inzaghi’s fifth-placed Inter Milan takes on an Empoli side that beat it 1-0 in the reverse fixture earlier in the season, while AC Milan hosts Lecce.
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