Milan: Veteran striker Alessandro Del Piero looks determined to end his Juventus career on a high as the Serie A title race heads into the home straight.
In his final season with Juventus, Del Piero came on as a substitute to score the winning goal in a 2-1 victory over Lazio on Wednesday that propelled his team back to the top of the standings. It was his 288th goal in 700 appearances for the club. However, the clock is ticking down on his Juventus career, as the Bianconeri and Del Piero announced late last year that the player will leave the club at the end of the season.
"To draw or lose the game would have been football suicide," Del Piero said. "I hope it turns out to be one of the most important goals I've scored in my career." Juventus lead defending champions AC Milan by a point and play last-place Cesena on Sunday. Milan host Genoa on Saturday.
Both Del Piero and Juventus seem to be hitting top form at exactly the right time. Del Piero scored crucial goals against Inter Milan in the league and AC Milan in the Italian Cup recently, while his club — following a series of draws - has overtaken Milan with four straight wins.
"My personal path and Juve's seem to be going together," Del Piero said. "It's a marvellous period for us, which energises us and gives us joy. "We're at the finishing line; we won't give up like Milan won't. It's a battle of nerves, tiredness, awareness, so many things. We're good, we won, now we have to think about the next game."
Cesena have not lost in their past four games and, though they are 15 points from safety, they are seemingly determined not to go down without a fight.
Meanwhile, Genoa will be desperate for something against Milan as they look to end a miserable run. They have not won in over two months and fans protested outside the stadium on Wednesday.
They face a tough test at the San Siro as Milan can't afford to lose more ground against Juventus. Massimiliano Allegri's team beat Chievo Verona 1-0 on Tuesday for its first victory in five games. The match also marked Gennaro Gattuso's return to action after six months out with an eye injury.
"It wasn't a good match to watch, but we played with what we had," Gattuso said. "We showed all our experience; it wasn't easy. We knew we had to fight. We had an advantage of four points and we threw it away. But we are ready to fight. I don't see any reason for us to beat ourselves up and say we have lost the title."
The race for the third place is also hotting up, with Lazio on 54 points, Udinese on 51 and Roma on 50. Lazio know they need to find some consistency after developing a habit of following up every win with a loss in the next game. They face Novara on Sunday.
Roma, who beat Udinese to boost their chances of finishing third, host Fiorentina. Udinese face an Inter Milan side still harbouring hopes of finishing third and yet to lose a game under Andrea Stramaccioni.
Napoli are level on 48 points with Inter and need to turn things around rapidly against fast-improving Lecce after three successive defeats. However, Lecce come into the game on the back of two impressive victories — against Roma and Catania — and have only lost one of their 11 games to leave it just two points off safety.
Elsewhere, it's Atalanta vs Chievo Verona, Palermo vs Parma, Siena vs Bologna and Cagliari vs Catania.
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