Juventus face a crucial trip to Genoa on Sunday as Antonio Conte's men bid to keep pace with champions AC Milan in the Serie A title race.
Juve dropped two points behind Milan following a 1-1 draw at Bologna in midweek and face by far the tougher test this weekend.
Leaders Milan host relegation-threatened Lecce while Juve travel to play a team with one of the best home records in the division.
What's more, Juve will be without all three recognised centre-backs and Conte will also be sitting in the stands suspended.
Giorgio Chiellini and Andrea Barzagli are injured while Leonardo Bonucci is banned meaning South American Martin Caceres, a full-back, and Arturo Vidal, a midfielder, are likely to line-up at the back.
It will be a tall order for Juve to keep hold of Milan's coat-tails, although they may be hoping the rossoneri's confidence has been hit by their 3-0 defeat at Arsenal in midweek.
That may not be the case, though, as Milan chief executive Adriano Galliani believes the club will benefit from their reaction to that humbling defeat -- which did not prevent them from progressing to the Champions League quarter-finals as they had won the home leg 4-0.
Striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic was particularly annoyed by the performance and described it as unacceptable.
And Galliani is pleased the big Swede is angry.
"The more angry Ibra gets, the better things go. He's made this way, otherwise he wouldn't be Ibrahimovic," said Galliani.
The manager also refuses to get carried away by Milan's league lead, the first time this season they have been above Juve without having played a greater number of games.
"We're there, two points clear but nothing has changed. There are 12 matches left and hence 36 points up for grabs," added Galliani.
Juve face possibly the biggest threat to their stunning unbeaten season on Sunday.
After 26 league games, and three in the Italian Cup, they have yet to be beaten but are still second.
That is because they have drawn half their league matches, including their last three and five of their last six.
It is a run that has allowed Milan to suck them in and streak past.
But Juve and Italy midfielder Claudio Marchisio denies that is a sign that the Turin giants have lost some of their early season spark.
"It's not true that we're not playing like we were before because physically and mentally we're in good shape," he said.
"The only thing is that the other teams are starting to get to know us and taking counter measures.
"But apart from the results we're always the ones who take charge of the match, we just need to be more clinical."
Goals have certainly been hard to come by for Juve in the last few months, only scoring more than once five times in their last 14 matches.
In fact they have nine draws and just six wins in their last 15 despite mostly dominating possession and territory.
If they don't start finding wins easier to come by they may come under pressure from third-placed Lazio, who host Bologna and are just four points back.
Also in the mix are fourth-placed Udinese, two points behind Lazio and facing a trip to rock-bottom Novara.
On Saturday, Roma kept alive their European qualification hopes with a hard-fought 1-0 victory at Palermo.
A day earlier, on Friday, Inter gave under-fire boss Claudio Ranieri a reprieve with a dramatic late 2-0 win at Chievo while Napoli thumped Cagliari 6-3 to move up to fourth in the table following a sixth straight win in all competitions.
Fixtures:
Sunday (1400 GMT unless stated)
AC Milan v Lecce, Atalanta v Parma, Catania v Fiorentina, Cesena v Siena, Genoa v Juventus, Lazio v Bologna (1945 GMT), Novara v Udinese (1945 GMT)
Source: AFP
