ROME: Juventus and Roma meet at Turin's Olympic stadium on Saturday in a vital clash for each side's fortunes with both teams harboring hopes of moving upward in the Serie A standings.
Roma is second, eight points behind leader Inter Milan, while Juventus is four points behind the capital based club in third.
Juve's Vincenzo Iaquinta said the team's aim is to finish at least second come the end of the season.
And the Italy striker is banking on Roma's Champions League participation this season helping his team overhaul them.
"Everything will be more interesting because Roma have the Champions League which could distract them at the end of the season," he told Sky Sport.
"It will be a great end to the season and for us second place is a fundamental aim."
Rather than looking over their shoulders at Juve, Roma still hopes to catch Inter Milan, despite the champions' imperious form that has seen it win 17 and draw five of its 22 league matches this season.
"Roma can still win the title, we still believe it's possible," Brazilian defender Juan told Sport TV in Brazil.
"Eight points is a lot but we can catch them, as we saw at the beginning of the second half of the season.
"There's still a lot of matches to go and we're not giving up."
Roma began the year seven points behind Inter and briefly closed that gap to five points after the champion was held to a draw at Udinese.
But the very next week Roma slipped up at Siena, losing 3-0, and the gap opened out even further than it was before.
But if Roma is to maintain any hopes of catching Inter, a win in Turin is vital because anything more than the eight points would start to look insurmountable.
Source: China Daily/Agencies
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