Wojciech Szczesny believes Roma and Napoli go into Saturday afternoon’s big match with one thing in common: anger. — Photo res.cloudinary.com |
Football
"They will fight for the win and openly challenge us," Szczesny said. "But these are games when mentality makes the difference. I like to think that we don’t have to envy our rivals."
In what is Francesco Totti’s 25th and final season with the capital club, Roma are enjoying yet another tilt at the title Juventus, away to midtable Udinese on Sunday, have won the past five seasons.
But days after
Szczesny does not expect coach Luciano Spalletti to panic for a potent
Speaking to Sky Sport Italia, he added: "It’s easy to say after a defeat that we have to change things, but our results and performances have been positive for the past few months. There’s no point rushing to conclusions," said the Polish ’keeper.
"My future is the game against
Doubts over the future of
That has been compounded by negative results in yet another bleak month of February which saw defeats to Real Madrid in the Champions League, Atalanta in the league and Juventus in the Cup on Tuesday.
Defeat to Atalanta last week left
Sarri is expected to assemble his strongest possible side and that means Dries Mertens, who has hit three hat-tricks while deputising for Arkadiusz Milik during a four-month injury absence, could get the nod over the now-fit Pole.
Juventus will be without injured midfielder Stefano Sturaro for the trip to Udinese due to an ongoing stomach muscle problem.
But with Gonzalo Higuain, Paulo Dybala and Mario Mandzukic all fit, Massimiliano Allegri’s men should have little trouble prevailing against a Udinese side who suffered a 4-0 loss in the corresponding fixture last year.
High-flying Atalanta, only three points behind
Lazio, one point behind Atalanta, will look to build on their impressive display against Roma away to
Inter, now 18 points off the lead, are also six behind
But Argentinian striker Mauro Icardi told Gazzetta dello Sport they still believe in a third-place finish.
"We’re not out of contention and we won’t be until it’s mathematically impossible for us to qualify," he said.
"I firmly believe we can finish third, we all believe that, that’s always been our objective." — AFP