Juventus coach Claudio Ranieri is undaunted ahead of Sunday's visit to high-flying Serie A leaders AS Roma.
"Roma is more of a team than us, they're playing like clock-work and producing the best football in Europe. But they'll have to watch out for our world-class players who can make a difference any time," Ranieri told Italian radio Thursday.
Juve is coming off a 1-0 home upset against Udinese and will be without influential winger Mauro Camoranesi, who is out for at least a month with a recurrence of a thigh injury.
Former Bayern Munich and ex-Bosnia midfielder Hasan Salihamidzic is expected to take up the right-wing slot provided he comes through a last-minute fitness test.
But Ranieri will be looking more to the likes of experienced stars Alessandro Del Piero - despite his recent erratic form - and France goal-getter David Trezeguet to worry the Roma defence.
And Roma "will find it harder than they have done recently" to score against goalie Gigi Buffon, widely regarded as the world's best.
Ranieri insists he isn't going to the Olympic Stadium looking for a draw.
"I've never played for a draw in my life and I'm not going to start now," he said.
The Roma-Juve match is the first clash between two of Italy's Big Four this season.
Roma has three straight wins in Serie A, putting them two clear of Juve, and are coming off a rousing 2-0 Champions League win over Dynamo Kiev on Wednesday.
Chilean midfielder David Pizarro is set for his first start as coach Luciano Spalletti turns over the roster in a bid to avoid a repeat of last season, when an equally impressive Roma struggled to retain second place in the league and fizzled out in the Champions League, suffering a humiliating 7-1 demolition at the hands of Manchester United.
"We have more strength in depth this time and we're confident of keeping our form on both fronts," Pizarro said Thursday.
Brazil great Paolo Roberto Falcao, one-time 'King of Rome' in the 1980s, agreed.
"I know it's early days yet but I think Roma's already shown they have the ability to win both the scudetto and the Champions title," he said.
INTER LOOK TO PICK UP PACE.
Serie A champs Inter Milan, in second place on seven points, have to pick themselves up after a demoralising 1-0 Champions League defeat to Fenerbahce on Wednesday which could have been much worse but for the heroics of goalie Julio Cesar.
However, they will have defenders Maicon, Ivan Cordoba and Nicolas Burdisso back from European suspension and are able to choose from the most powerful strike force in Serie A as they visit bottom side Livorno: any two out of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, David Suazo, Hernan Crespo, Adriano and Julio Cruz.
The other member of the Big Four, AC Milan, will be looking to bring their impressive Champions League play back home against Parma on Saturday night.
The European champs took up where they left off against Man Utd and Liverpool last spring as they cruised to a 2-1 win at Benfica on Tuesday with Andrea Pirlo, Kaka and Pippo Inzaghi in sublime form.
Milan has drawn its last two Serie A games 1-1 - including a last-minute scrambled goal at Siena - and the team, one of three lagging four points behind Roma, has come under pressure from the unforgiving San Siro crowd.
Injured captain Paolo Maldini reacted on Thursday by saying: "I'm angry. A San Siro like that isn't home anymore".
The other team of the moment, Napoli, looks odds-on to pick up its third straight win away at bottom club Empoli.
With Argentine revelation Ezequiel Lavezzi - hailed by the Napoli faithful as 'the new Maradona' - and Slovak star Marek Hamsik playing exquisitely, and ex-Juve striker Marcelo Zalayeta of Uruguay finding a new lease of life, the promoted side is rivalling Roma as the most exciting team in Serie A at the moment.
Napoli has a home fixture against Livorno in mid-week - the first of this season's four Wednesday dates - while Roma and Inter have much tougher propositions away to Fiorentina and home to Sampdoria respectively.
The ever-heated mood at the San Paolo has been raised to fever pitch by the prospect of sitting atop Serie A in ten days' time - a return to the exalted days of the Divine Diego.
This weekend's other matches are
Saturday at 18:00 local:
Udinese (4 points)- Reggina (2)
Sunday at 15:00:
Atalanta (5) - Lazio (3)
Cagliari (4) - Palermo (4)
Catania (2) - Fiorentina (5)
Torino (3) - Siena (1)
Sunday at 20:30 local:
Sampdoria (4) - Genoa (2)
