Milan, Juventus building up for must-win clash

AC Milan and Juventus both breathed a sigh of relief at the weekend after scraping narrow victories against Serie A minnows that prevented them from blowing their title hopes.

Now the two most successful teams in Italian football history will go head to head this weekend knowing that anything other than a victory will all but end their scudetto aspirations before Christmas.

Leaders Inter Milan are six points ahead of the pair and facing a home match against rock bottom Chievo which they are expected to win.

If they do win that then failure to win next weekend for either Milan or Juventus will leave them eight or nine points behind Jose Mourinho’s seemingly unstoppable stars, who have won their last six league matches.

That would would leave them with a demoralising mountain to climb throughout the rest of the season.

Both teams realise how important it was to win last week and how vital this week’s match will be as well.

“We cannot and we don’t want to surrender in the championship, the others will have to win it themselves,” said a defiant Juve coach Claudio Ranieri.

“I repeat, we’re not settling for second place. Lecce are a team that make you work hard and we’re not the only ones who’ve found it difficult against them, they’re so good at closing down space.”

Juventus needed a last minute winner from Brazilian forward Amauri to snatch the three points that looked likely to elude them after Daniele Cacia’s 83rd minute equaliser to a stunning opener from Sebastian Giovinco.

Milan too were not the most convincing in their home match against Catania as they needed a deflected goal by Brazilian star Kaka to sneak through 1-0.

“We’re six points behind and there’s just two games left before Christmas, it looks unlikely that we’ll catch Inter before then,” said Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani.

“Even so, next up is the appointment with Juventus, which is a massive match.”

A win is vital but neither team is coming into the match on top form. If they don’t find their game by the weekend, it may be too late thereafter.