Lazio’s title chances face a make or break clash away to Serie A leaders Milan in the plum tie of the midweek fixtures today.
Lazio sit third in the table and seven points behind their hosts today but know that a defeat will almost certainly rule them out of the scudetto challenge.
No-one at the club is expecting to go all the way, but they are battling for a top four finish and Champions League qualification.
However, defeat could see them drop out of the top four for the first time since the beginning of the season.
They are under pressure from both Inter and Roma, who sit just two points behind and each have a game in hand.
Coach Edy Reja is doing his best to calm the expectation at the club, announcing perhaps ironically after Saturday’s 2-0 win over Fiorentina that the team was now safe from relegation having reached the magical 40-point mark.
They will not be helped by injuries to Mobido Diakite and Sergio Floccari or Mauro Zarate’s suspension.
It will be a far from easy task against the league leaders who seem to have been threatening to escape over the hill for the last two months, gradually grinding out the gap on their main rivals.
Milan have their own injury problems but have the luxury of a five-star forward line that seems to be papering over the cracks.
The Rossoneri were indebted to strikers Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Robinho in the 2-0 weekend win at Catania after they were reduced to 10 men.
As so often this season, their strikers, and Ibrahimovic in particular, have bailed them out of jail.
This has frequently worked against the so-called lesser teams but not so against their main challengers as Milan have lost at home to both Roma and Juventus.
Their list of absentees was also increased with the loss due to suspension of new midfield signing Mark van Bommel following his league debut red card.
Lazio drew with Milan earlier in the season and the other scudetto challengers will be hoping they can take some points off the leaders again.
Inter looked in danger of dropping out of the league race at half-time on Sunday as they trailed 2-0 at home to Palermo.
But a remarkable second half fightback inspired by two-goal debutant Giampaolo Pazzini saw Samuel Eto’o bag the winner from the spot and keep the champions’ hopes of a sixth straight crown alive.
They travel to rock-bottom Bari, who look already doomed, on Thursday needing to keep the momentum going.
Perhaps Milan’s closest challengers will prove to be second placed Napoli whose Uruguay striker Edinson Cavani is in fine form having bagged his second hat-trick in four matches against Sampdoria at the weekend.
They travel to Chievo tomorrow but will be wary of opponents also coming off a big win, 3-0 away to Brescia. The pressure is mounting on Juventus coach Luigi Del Neri after his team suffered a fourth defeat in seven games since the turn of the year in Sunday’s 2-1 loss at home to Udinese.
Their trip to Palermo could well be his last if the defeats rise to five.
Programme
Today: 20.45 Milan vs Lazio.
Tomorrow: 20.45 Cesena vs Catania; Chievo vs Napoli; Fiorentina vs Genoa; Palermo vs Juventus; Parma vs Lecce; Roma vs Brescia; Sampdoria vs Cagliari; Udinese vs Bologna.
Thursday: 20.45 Bari vs Inter.