Nigeria Content Online

Rarely
can a league match between Juventus and Inter Milan have been more
important than Sunday’s Turin clash (20:45 Nigerian time) despite their
long and bitter rivalry.

Juve against Inter
is known as the “Derby of Italy” given the hostility between the sides
following their title battles over the years and the fallout from a
2006 match-fixing scandal.

But Sunday’s game
with just over three months left in the season will be especially
hard-fought with Inter needing a win to put further pressure on
stuttering leaders AC Milan and Juve desperate for three points to stop
their season collapsing.

“Home or away, when
Inter play Juventus it’s always a huge game and a very tense affair.
It’s important that things don’t get out of hand on the pitch or off
it, but we know it will be a massive game for them and for us too,”
Inter president Massimo Moratti told reporters.

“The championship
race is very much alive and fortunately we’re starting to get involved
in it again now. I think it’s fantastic for the fans of all teams.”

Third-placed Inter
trail Milan by five points with a game in hand after new boss Leonardo
helped the European champions recover from a poor start to the campaign
under Rafa Benitez.

Last weekend’s 5-3
win over AS Roma showed off their refound verve upfront, even with
Diego Milito now out injured for a month, although they are leaking
goals much more regularly than they did in their treble season last
term under Jose Mourinho.

Fretting fans

Once mighty Juve on
the other hand are down in eighth having finished a poor seventh last
term but last Saturday’s 3-1 win at Cagliari when new signing
Alessandro Matri scored twice against his former club offered some hope
to their fretting fans.

Their frustration
goes back to 2006 when Juve were stripped of their 2005 and 2006
Scudetti and demoted to Serie B for trying to procure favourable
referees for matches.

Despite bouncing
straight back to the top-flight and finishing third the following
season, Luigi Del Neri’s side have failed to rediscover their former
glory with a host of average-quality signings and injury problems not
helping.

Juve have accused
Inter of also being involved in the 2006 scandal and getting away scot
free. The Italian soccer federation is probing new phone tap evidence
from the last decade related to Inter, who deny wrongdoing.

Milan, who host Parma on Saturday (1700), will hope the pair cancel
each other out in Turin while second-placed Napoli have an awkward
encounter at Roma in seventh (1945).