Lazio hope to bury choker tag as Real begin post-Toshack era

In Italy, second placed Juventus taking on champions AC Milan. Ordinarily that would be the match of the day but the all-Roman clash at the Stadio Olimpico deserves that accolade this weekend.

Lazio have several reasons for wanting to beat Roma. And only one of them is to defend their three-point lead at the top of the table.

Equally important is the fact that after years of playing entertaining but unsuccessful football with former coach Zdenek Zeman, Roma have now become credible title challengers under Fabio Capello.

A victory on Sunday would chip away at Roma’s chances of staying the pace until the final run-in next May.

But by far the biggest source of motivation for Sven Goran Eriksson’s men is pure revenge. For if Lazio aren’t Italy’s champions, it’s mainly down to Roma and the derby defeat they inflicted at the end of last season, ending Lazio’s 17-match unbeaten run and plunging them into crisis.

Lazio had waited a quarter of a century to win the league. And thanks to Roma, and goal scorers Marco Delvecchio and Francesco Totti, they are still waiting.

Eriksson is convinced his team can win it this time, and is expected to field Croatian Alen Boksic alongside Chilean Marcelo Salas up front, although the real danger man will be their unstoppable Argentinian midfielder, Juan Sebastian Veron.

Roma will meanwhile turn to Totti’s playmaking skills and the goal sense of Vincenzo Montella at a packed Olympic stadium.

What’s less clear is whether Delvecchio will return from injury in time to deny Brazilian Fabio junior a place in Capello’s starting line-up.

Roma defender Cafu, one of the five Brazilians on Roma’s books, summed things up by saying: "Whoever loses will suffer a major blow, both in terms of team morale and their place in the table. If Lazio win, they’ll leave us behind and it will be hard to catch them up. But if they lose, they’ll be in trouble. Lazio are more fired-up because of what happened last season. But whoever wins will become a better team. It will be a really tough match."

But if there will be fireworks and a worldwide television audience for the afternoon game, there won’t be much less a few hours later in Turin when Juventus take on old rivals AC Milan.

Both sides have something to prove and both want to win as much for the psychological boost it would bring as they do for the three points.

The hosts may be second in the table but the quality of their football has left much to be desired, particularly the goal-shy performances up front from Zinedine Zidane, Alessandro Del Piero and Filippo Inzaghi.

Juventus have denied they are interested in Manchester United skipper Roy Keane, out of contract at the end of the season while real Madrid’s French misfit Nicolas Anelka, replying to rumours that the meringues want to offload him, bluntly said he was not interested in a move to Juventus.

In Germany volatile winger Mario Basler will consummate his new union with Kaiserslautern on Saturday when they try to sink champions league high flyers Hertha Berlin deep into domestic trouble.

Basler joined the red devils from Bayern Munich for whom his brilliant skills on the pitch were frequently overshadowed by his more headline-grabbing behaviour off it.

But Kaiserslautern coach Otto Rehhagel was once sacked by Bayern and proved them wrong by leading his new team to the title in 1998 and clearly he hopes Basler will also be eager to wreak revenge on the league leaders.

Victory against Hertha would be a good start.

Bayern, meanwhile, host Freiburg on Saturday although president Franz Beckenbauer won’t be present because of laser surgery on a kidney stone.