Football: Turin giants descend on Udinese

ITALIAN PREVIEW

UDINESE, STRUGGLING this season since Alberto Zaccheroni, their former coach, deserted them for Milan, taking the prolific striker Oliver Bierhoff with them, face a tough task playing host to Juventus in tomorrow's live Channel 4 Serie A game.

Juventus, the best team in European in the last two seasons before contriving to lose consecutive European Cup finals to Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid, continued a perplexingly moderate run in the Champions' League this autumn when held 1-1 at home by Athletic Bilbao on Wednesday. But the Turin giants went top of Serie A by beating Sampdoria 2-0 last week thanks to two goals from their hitman Filippo Inzaghi, while Udinese were on the wrong end of a 4-0 thumping at Roma. Juventus will be without the French midfielder Didier Deschamps (twisted ankle) and the Uruguayan defender Paulo Montero (suspended).

Tomorrow's evening game is the the big Milan-Internazionale derby at San Siro. Massimo Moratti, Inter's owner, has given Simoni a week to "prove his worth" after Inter's 3-2 defeat by a moderate Bari last week. Milan are third. Injuries to Ronaldo (tendinitis) and Robert Baggio have hit Inter, but Milan under their new coach, Zaccheroni, are on the up, largely thanks to the in-form Bierhoff and Brazilian Leonardo.

Other games: Fiorentina v Venezia, Bologna v Roma, Bari v Parma, Lazio v Empoli, Cagliari v Piacenza,Perugia v Vicenza, Sampdoria v Salernitana.