Downbeat Juve needing a quick pick-up

The pressure will be on Juventus to bounce back and quickly to avoid damaging their Serie A title chances following their midweek exit from the Champions League.

Juve were not only knocked out and beaten but they were humiliated 4-1 at home by Bayern Munich and looked like a team that can’t contain positive opponents and struggles to create anything of their own.

In terms of performance it was a far cry from the one they put in last weekend to beat champions and leaders Inter Milan 2-1 in Turin to re-ignite their championship hopes.

The danger for Juve after last Saturday’s high is that they might suffer a European hangover and drop points away to Bari on Saturday, thus undoing their good work against Inter which brought them to within five points of top spot.

The champions showed no ill-effects from their league defeat as they beat Rubin Kazan 2-0 to qualify for the second round of Europe’s premier club competition.

And that is the sort of response Juve coach Ciro Ferrara will expect from his players on Saturday, although he may have to work hard to pick them up.

Claudio Marchisio, the match-winner against Inter, admitted that morale is low in the camp.

“I would gladly give up my goal against Inter if we could replay that match against Bayern,” he told the official Juve TV channel.

“After the great effort to beat Inter we relaxed, partly because we were tired. But we should never have arrived at that last match needing a result to progress.

“We’re all angry but we also realise that the only way to respond is on the pitch.

“We’ve got to win our next two games against Bari and Catania to reach Christmas in the best possible way.”

Winning away to Bari will not be easy though, the Serie A newboys have proved awkward opponents for everyone this season.

Only Inter and Fiorentina have conceded fewer goals than Bari who have developped an effective counter-attacking game based on two speedy wingers.

They have won their last three home games and been beaten only once this season on their own patch while they have twice returned from the San Siro with a point.

Juve have also struggled on several occasions in matches following Champions League games, with their two away defeats coming after a European expedition.

Ferrara also has a selection headache as he must decide what to do with his two major summer Brazilian signings Diego and Felipe Melo, both looking like flops at the moment.

Those two were supposed to help take Juve onto the next level to be able to challenge Inter, but after a good start to life in Italy Diego has become increasingly ineffective while Felipe Melo is a shadow of the player who performed so well for Fiorentina last season.

Felipe Melo will be suspended after he was sent off against Inter and if Mohamed Sissoko does not recover from injury, Ferrara’s central midfield will look somewhat lightweight.

That may tempt the coach to ditch Diego and bring in more aggressive and defensive-minded midfielders while playing a straight 4-4-2.

Inter meanwhile face a trip to struggling Atalanta with some injury worries as both Walter Samuel and Dejan Stankovic, who limped off against Rubin, set to miss the clash.

However, Ivan Cordoba should deputise for Samuel while coach Jose Mourinho can bring Esteban Cambiasso or Muntari Sulley back into the midfield or even push Javier Zanetti into the middle and bring Cristian Chivu back in at left-back.

AC Milan host Palermo and are looking to extend their 13-match unbeaten run in all competitions.

They have won their last five league games to close to within four points of Inter in second place.

Saturday

Bari v Juventus, Cagliari v Napoli

Sunday

AC Milan v Palermo, Atalanta v Inter Milan, Catania v Livorno, Chievo v Fiorentina, Lazio v Genoa, Parma v Bologna, Sampdoria v AS Roma, Siena v Udinese