Juventus boss Massimiliano Allegri expects a tough test for his unbeaten Serie A leaders when they tackle Fiorentina on Saturday.
Juve head to Florence with an eight-point advantage over second-placed Napoli, while they also came through a tough midweek Champions League encounter, beating Valencia.
Fiorentina are nine places and 19 points below Juventus in Serie A, but Allegri is braced for a fierce examination.
“It’s a tough game because Fiorentina are a fine team with young, skilful players and they’re well drilled as a unit,” Allegri told the club website.
“They haven’t lost at home yet and they’ve scored 14 while conceding just three. Plus, this is the biggest game of the year for them so they’ll be really fired up and will do everything possible to beat us.
“They are well-coached with young, strong players who are doing well. They haven’t lost at home yet, they’ve scored 14 goals and only conceded three, while for them this is the most importune game of the year.
“This is an important weekend because all the teams at the top have tricky away fixtures.
“We’ll need to be patient and remember that matches in Florence are never over until they’re over.
“They’ll have the whole city behind them. We’ll must show great character and be on the ball technically.”
Allegri is set to make changes to his side following the win on Tuesday night, with Sami Khedira set to miss out.
“Wednesday was a tough, intense match and we’ll need a lot of mental and physical energy tomorrow,” he said. “(Federico) Bernardeschi is back but Khedira isn’t available. I doubt Alex Sandro will be either. We’ll go with either (Mattia) De Sciglio or (Joao)] Cancelo at left-back.
“Emre Can trained with the squad for part of the session yesterday. We’ll speak with the doctors and see if he might make the bench.”
Fiorentina are looking to end a run of five successive draws, and their midfielder Gerson is relishing the challenge.
“Juventus are a beautiful team,” he told Corriere dello Sport. “They have champions of the calibre of (Cristiano) Ronaldo, Douglas Costa, (Blaise) Matuidi, and I could go on.
“We can’t be distracted, but we can draw energy from our fans because one thing is for sure, we never give up – especially tomorrow.”
