Juventus vs Genoa preview - Juve look to close gap on top four

Posted Sunday, April 10, 2011 by PA

Juventus coach Luigi Del Neri has promised his team will fight to the end for a Champions League spot as the battle for a Serie A top-four berth enters the last seven games.

The Bianconeri, who are seventh in the standings, welcome Genoa to Turin on Sunday looking to remain on course for Europe's premier club competition.

With Udinese and Roma, who are fourth and sixth respectively, going head to head at the Friuli stadium on the same day, Juve have the opportunity to gain ground on at least one of their rivals against mid-table Genoa.

Last weekend's 2-0 victory at Roma allowed Juve to close the gap to eight points on Udinese, who hold the last Champions League qualifying spot. Juve trail two points behind Roma.

"We have a solid group and we are growing," Del Neri said.

"I don't know if we will able to recover all the points needed to finish in the top four but if we remain focused and give continuity to our results, we can achieve anything.

"We will give our all in our remaining games to finish as high as possible."

Rivals Genoa will need to show a vast improvement if they are to surprise Juve - the Grifoni lost 1-0 to Cagliari last time out to drop to 12th place.

"We played a terrible game against Cagliari," Genoa coach Davide Ballardini said."We have to play much better against Juve if we are to avoid going home empty handed.

"I'm sure my players will react and show their worth against Juve."

Genoa have won just one of their last five league games and have scored just once in their last three league matches.

Fortunately for Genoa, Juve will be without defenders Marco Motta and Fabio Grosso, with the former out injured and the latter suspended.

Moreover, Marco Storari will again replace Gianluigi Buffon in Juve's goal, with the Italy captain unavailable through injury.