Massimiliano Allegri will have no complaints if he has to watch Juventus being crowned Serie A champions from the comfort of his living room.
Should Juve claim all three points from today’s trip to Fiorentina, their players and staff will have to tune in to Napoli’s capital-city encounter with Roma tomorrow to see if their performance in Tuscany will have been enough.
In reality, the reigning champions are unlikely to be caught if they pull 12 points clear but a Napoli victory in Rome would keep champagne on ice in Turin.
Coach Allegri, who landed Juve’s fourth straight title last season, is suitably determined to make the current Scudetto question an academic one.
He told reporters: “We have to play a great match in Florence, and then I won’t rule out the idea of celebrating in front of the TV on Monday (tomorrow).
“It would be good to be able to move forward with this group of players, and even improve it, so we can enjoy another great season and do better in the Champions League, as we choked a bit this year.
“We had our heads under the water early in the season, but we did not drown.”
Martin Caceres, Roberto Pereyra, Neto and Claudio Marchisio are ruled out of the Stadio Artemio Franchi clash through injury, while Giorgio Chiellini is unlikely to feature despite returning to training.
Midfielder Stefano Sturaro, regularly deployed as a second-half substitute, is suspended.
Fiorentina, meanwhile, are likely missing on-loan Leicester right-back Yohan Benalouane and striker Khouma Babacar as they target another win to raise flagging spirits.
La Viola did beat Sassuolo in their last home fixture, but Wednesday’s reverse at Udinese was a third in their last seven games.
Their poor form in March and April means the Tuscans can forget about gatecrashing the Champions League places, but boss Paulo Sousa is confident he can right the wrongs of recent weeks.
“We understand that this is a match that means a lot to everybody, so we want to make the fans happy and proud of us,” he told La Repubblica Sport.
“We have been doing everything we can to find a way to get a positive result from this game.”
Juve have failed to win a league game in Florence in their last three attempts and the Bianconeri will be particularly keen to avoid a repeat of the 4-2 defeat they suffered in October 2013.
Serie A
Played yesterday
Inter 3
Jovetic 36, 75; Eder 90;
Udinese 1
Thereau 9;
HT: 1-1. Att: 44,000.
Playing today
Frosinone vs Palermo - 12.30
Atalanta vs Chievo - 15.00
Bologna vs Genoa - 15.00
Sampdoria vs Lazio - 15.00
Torino vs Sassuolo - 15.00
Fiorentina vs Juventus - 20.45
Tomorrow
Roma vs Napoli - 15.00
Verona vs Milan - 17.00
Carpi vs Empoli - 19.00