The opening match of the 12th round will be played on Thursday, because Comunale stadium in Turin will host very important rugby match this weekend. Juventus are happy with the time of the match, as that will give them ten days to prepare for Derby Della Italia against Inter on Meazza. It is still too early for Bianconeri to think about that match, as they will have to play excellent Genoa, the team that is on a five-match unbeaten run. Juventus are in great form and the win over Real at Comunale was just a sign of things to come. The Old Lady defeated Roma, Torino, Bologna and Chievo, stormed through Madrid and they will enter this match in high spirits. If they win this match, they will put extra pressure on title rivals, as Inter have a difficult away game in Palermo. Juventus and Genoa know each other inside out, they even battled in Serie B two years ago and visiting coach Gasperini will have the special motive, as he was long at the helm of Juventus’ youth academy.

Triumphant Juve are back from Madrid. Led by their legendary captain, Del Piero, they slapped Real for the second time in the last two weeks and it is a definite fact that Juventus are playing in the eighth finals of the Champions League. They don’t have time to celebrate, Ranieri has already stated the his team will put all their efforts towards the home championship. Bad run is forgotten, and wins over Torino, Bologna and Roma have placed Bianconeri back in the upper half. Strength of the greatest Italian club depends on the recovery of its players and we will see if it is going to happen soon enough. After a defeat in Palermo, Chievo sacked the coach, and now are hoping that shock therapy will give results. Iachini was replaced by Mimmo di Carlo, who didn’t have the best of times in Parma after the fine spell in Mantova, but he was still picked before Pillon who had his share of time in Verona club earlier in the past.

Madrid see this match as a revenge for the unexpected and painful loss at Olimpico in Torino two weeks ago. In the 21st century Real were regularly the losing side in the clashes with Juventus, and the biggest Italian club are somehow always able to lift their play against Merenges. It is not because Juventus are a better team, that is not the case this year and the last half an hour of the game in Torino showed that Real have more quality. Perhaps they underestimated Juventus reserve squad that were in a big crisis, but already after 50 minutes the result was 2:0 in favour of the hosts. Schuster’s side got back in the game but the competitive spirit helped the Italians to keep the minimum win and take over the head of group H. Now Real will go out of their way to fight back; they have six points from three matches and a win would see them make a decisive step towards the next round. To be honest, no matter what the result may be, we expect both of these giants to move on to the knock-out stage while Zenit and BATE Borisov will fight for third place and UEFA Cup.

This is the derby of the round 10 of Serie A. Juventus finally showed some consistency and returned to the top part of the table with wins over Torino and Bologna. They will try to beat Roma on Saturday night and write off the rivals from the race for the Champions League spot. Maybe it is too soon to talk about Roma dropping from the title race but they lost all away games this season and wasn’t able to show that they will improve and get back on the right track. However, the visitors will try to take advantage of the fact that Juventus has as much as 14 injured players and that Ranieri’s team is bleeding all over the place. Experienced coach rested Del Piero in Bologna but one of the more experienced players, Pavel Nedved stepped up to the plate and scored two goals. That result took some pressure of the team but now more players are injured, which just shows that pre-season was not done in the right way. Roma didn’t play in midweek, or to be true, they played five minutes of the match with Sampdoria, when the match was cancelled due to the downpour of almost biblical proportions. The team saved the strength for this match and that can be the advantage over Juventus.

Bologna have lost their sixth season’s game this weekend, only two wins have hammered them to the bottom leaving them not bright future in store. Outing to Genoa certainly wasn’t a big test for Arrigoni’s side, they were holding on quite well for entire 60 minutes, but Cassano was a mystery. It was exactly him who made a difference on the pitch. Bologna don’t have a player like that on board and they need to put out the team spirit. Unlike the last week’s win over Lazio, it simply didn’t function this time. Juventus won the Derby della Mole, as we have assumed, one goal was enough to seal the deal. Amauri is proving to be the worthy investment though a lot of people were very much suspicious regarding his hefty transfer to Palermo. Bianconeri weren’t great against Torino, the game was a real war, but they had a bit more experience and strength to grab a valuable triumph over their city rivals.

Derby della Mole, derby of the city Torino, was given the name by the tallest museum in the World, which overlooks the city – centre of the Piemonte region. Certainly the match between Juventus and Torino isn’t as important as derbies between Milan and Inter or Roma and Lazio, only because Juventus is much bigger and more successful club. Still, this is the match of the season for the fans, the hatred is really big and it has happened that Torino gives their best, wins the match against big rival and then loses the following week from much weaker opponent. This match comes in the bad moment for both sides. Torino lost last three games and coach De Biasi’s position is not safe. His counterpart, Ranieri, was in the worse situation but managed to postpone the sack with a great win over Real in the Champions League. Still, bad performances in league games and only two points from four games made Juventus slip down the league table. If they fail to beat Torino Ranieri will be under a tremendous pressure. Juventus has to be fighting for the title, and the fans will not settle for anything less and no wonder that the fans are not satisfied.

Even the older Juventus fans can’t remember this kind of a crisis. The Saturday loss in Naples was the last straw and the media literally crucified coach Ranieri. Although he keeps on repeating that there is no crisis, clearly the biggest Italians club have no future with him. They are already very much behind the leading teams. The disastrous transfer windows and often injuries of best players limited the team so much that we don’t see how Juventus will get away this time. However, they are the biggest threat when everyone rules them out but they don’t have the quality for big things. Last year they went along relying only on Del Piero’s individual quality and several other players and the fact that they played in Serie A only. Now, with two games a week, they seem worn out and weary. Mighty Real arrive at Olimpico, after they continued the domination over city rivals, Atletico this weekend. The Royal club did win the match in the last second through a penalty but they earned it. They are dominant in group H, having taken six points in duels against BATE Borisov and Zenit and already claimed the contention for the first place in the group. They can use some tactics in Torino, as a point would suit them just fine.

This is one of the rare occasions when Juventus will not travel to Naples as a favourite. In the last round the team suffered their first ever defeat at home from Palermo in 111 years. They are on the run of three matches without a win and they slipped from the top of the table into the middle. They are plagued with injuries, half the team is on the sidelines and Ranieri has a very difficult job. It is his job that is on the line although the board has given him support. Nevertheless, Juve will face a couple of very tough opponents, as after the game with Napoli they will face Real Madrid in the Champions League before they play city rivals Torino. Napoli also needed some rest. They were eliminated from the UEFA Cup by Benfica before they lost in Genoa. Even though Napoli took the lead at the Marassi, defensive mistakes and refereeing errors lead them to defeat.

Juventus are still unbeaten this season but this fact could lead you to a wrong conclusion. Actually, bianconeri have troubles in scoring and last Saturday at Marassi they created only on chance. Of course, the match ended in the least popular result, which only added to the doubts in Juventus’ capability to take points against weaker teams. After that they travelled a long way to Belarus and only drew 2:2 against BATE Borisov which is a weak result but in the end the point was more than they deserved. Actually, outsiders had a 2:0 lead over groggy Juventus. If it weren’t for the super talented Giovinco and striker Iaquinta, they would have lost the match. The pressure on Ranieri is growing, the game against Palermo can be crucial for his status. Palermo reached their third victory in four games. We mentioned that they didn’t have luck in the last away game against Napoli, but fortune was their ally against Reggina. They had one shot at the target but that Miccoli’s strike was enough for three points.

Italian giants travel to Belarus for the returning leg in group H second round. This is truly a clash of David and Goliath; Juve started with a win over Zenit thus showing their Champions League ambitions, after a three-year exile. The Old Lady weren’t brilliant against Zenit but Del Piero decided the game. Now European champion want points in Belarus so they could mark maximum efficiency before the match against Real Madrid, their biggest rivals in the group. BATE felt playing in the elite after their trip to Madrid. They lost 2:0 although home side weren’t brilliant. It was a big step up for them; clearly BATE Borisov are first Belarus team to play in such a big competition. They surprised Anderlecht and Bulgarian Levski in the qualifications. Getting to the group stage is a fantastic success for them.