PREVIEW: Inter pressure mounts on Strama
Andrea Stramaccioni heads into this weekend's trip to Sampdoria wondering if it will be his last Serie A match on the Inter Milan bench.
These are testing times for the Nerazzurri and their 37-year-old coach, with a 1-0 home defeat to Bologna the latest poor result to invoke the ire of club president Massimo Moratti.
And as Inter drift out to fifth place, where they are four points behind Milan and the Champions League places, Stramaccioni has been forced to answer some tough questions about his future.
He told reporters: "It is normal and proper at this time that Moratti is not satisfied with the results of the team.
"I cannot say that I have not always felt 101 per cent support from the president, but at the end of the day, he is the president and he can make any decision he wants, but I don't get the feeling he wants to get rid of me.
"The objective for the next 10 games is to restore confidence and a swagger to Inter on the pitch."
As the Nerazzurri bid to get back on track against mid-table Samp, who are also eager to prove a point having seen their six-match unbeaten run come to an end at Cagliari, rivals AC Milan have their eye on Napoli and second place.
The nature of the seven-time European champions' exit from this season's elite continental competition was certainly galling, as Barcelona reached the Champions League quarter-finals by overturning a two-goal deficit to win 4-0 at the Nou Camp, but Milan defender Ignazio Abate tried to look on the bright side.
"It's a shame as we had the chance to do them some damage," he told acmilan.com. "This season we had a real chance to go further in this competition by knocking them out.
"But the main objective is the league and we can't drop our guard. There are about five teams within a five-point distance of each other and we can't give up."
Sunday's opponents are relegation-threatened Palermo, who arrive at the San Siro in disarray after making their fifth managerial change of the season.
Giuseppe Sannino returned to the Sicilian club just six months after being sacked and replaced by Gian Piero Gasperini, whose second brief reign followed the three-game tenure of Alberto Malesani and ended by mutual consent last week.
The Rosanero are five points from safety and share last place with Pescara, who host Chievo, while 18th-placed Siena bid to leave the drop zone with a home win over Cagliari.
Napoli are undergoing a fivex-game winless run and will hope to end it when when Atalanta visit the San Paolo.
Fiorentina's quest for a third straight win and a top-three berth continues against Genoa with the Viola harbouring dreams of a late push for Europe.
Elsewhere, inconsistent Torino look to exploit a similarly out-of-sorts Lazio side as the capital city's other club, Roma, play host to Parma, who snapped an eight-game winless streak last time out.
Saturday's Round-Up
Juventus opened up a 12-point lead at the top of Serie A thanks to a 2-0 win over Bologna at the Stadio Dall'Ara.
Second-half goals from Mirko Vucinic and Claudio Marchisio earned the Bianconeri all three points to extend their advantage at the top of the table over Napoli and AC Milan, who play Atalanta and Pescara respectively on Sunday.
Bologna had their moments in the first half but were unable to build on their impressive win over Inter Milan last weekend.
Catania won the battle of two clubs looking to gatecrash the European places, downing Udinese 3-1 at the Stadio Massimino.
All four goals arrived in the second half with Alejandro Gomez on target twice and Francesco Lodi scoring for the home side.
Luis Muriel netted a consolation for the visitors.
The win lifts the Rosaneri to within two points of the top five heading into the last nine games of the season, giving the Sicilians a realistic hope of taking a place in the Europa League next season.
Sunday's Serie A Fixtures
Saturday's Serie A Results