Massimiliano Allegri admits “it’s always been difficult for Juventus” at Fiorentina, who will be “pushed by the whole city”.
The Viola consider the Bianconeri to be their most bitter rivals, with the match at the Artemio Franchi often seen as the biggest game of their season.
Tomorrow Stefano Pioli’s side welcome the Old Lady to Florence, and his opposite number is well aware of the difficulties the fixture presents.
Massimiliano Allegri admits “it’s always been difficult for Juventus” at Fiorentina, who will be “pushed by the whole city”.
The Viola consider the Bianconeri to be their most bitter rivals, with the match at the Artemio Franchi often seen as the biggest game of their season.
Tomorrow Stefano Pioli’s side welcome the Old Lady to Florence, and his opposite number is well aware of the difficulties the fixture presents.
“More than a pitfall it’s a difficult game, because Fiorentina are a good team,” Allegri warned in his pre-match Press conference.
“They’re well coached, with young, strong players who are doing well. They haven’t lost at home yet, they’ve scored 14 goals and only conceded three, while for them this is the most important game of the year.
“For ourselves it’ll be like a lot of other games, we’ll find a team that will do everything to beat us, but it’ll be an important game for us because all of the top three are playing away to difficult teams.
“It’ll be a long game, because games in Florence never end and we’ll be facing a team who will be pushed by the whole city.
“We will have to have the same enthusiasm and play with personality and great technique.
“When we arrive in April we’ll be able to say what the most difficult month is, now let’s think about tomorrow, then on Friday we’ll have another head-to-head game with Inter.
“Then we need to go to Switzerland to secure first place [in the Champions League group], because at this point that becomes important. Then we’ll have the other games.
“The most important thing now is Florence, because of the difficulties with the game and the atmosphere.
“It’s always been difficult for Juventus in Florence.”
Allegri then gave some updates on his team selection for tomorrow, starting with Rodrigo Bentancur.
“He can still play some games and tomorrow he’ll play, then we’ll see [Miralem] Pjanic and [Blaise] Matuidi. Then there’s [Juan] Cuadrado who can play on the right.
“Let’s see who has recovered, because Tuesday [against Valencia] was a tough game. [Federico] Bernardeschi is back, [Mattia] De Sciglio will be there.
“It’s difficult for Alex Sandro, [Sami] Khedira will be out. Emre [Can] did part of the training session with the squad yesterday, so we’ll see if he can make the bench.
“From next week he’ll do more intense training, and he could be available against Inter.
"I don't think it'll be the same team, because we played Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday. Afterward we'll have a week where we can recover our energies.
"That doesn't mean that those who will be on the bench tomorrow will stay there for the whole game, but there could be some changes tomorrow.
"It could be [Leo] Bonucci, Mandzukic or [Miralem] Pjanic [who rests]. We'll see.
"In midfield I don't have many options, so all I can do is take one out. At the back it's all good, because [Daniele] Rugani had a good game against Spal and [Medhi] Benatia played a great game against Milan.
"Occasionally I like to give [Giorgio] Chiellini a liltte rest, Leo has played a lot and he could also rest tomorrow.
"The important thing tomorrow is to be aware of the difficulties of the match.
"It will be a beautiful day of sport and football because playing in Florence in front of a wonderful crowd is always nice."