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Serie A

Juventus boss Claudio Ranieri will face Napoli as they put the disappointment of their midweek defeat to Chelsea behind.

The Bianconeri lost the opening leg of their last-16 tie with the Blues 1-0 in London on Wednesday night.

Didier Drogba scored the only goal of the game in the 12th minute, after which Ranieri's side showed enough to suggest they can still yet progress when the second leg is played at the Stadio Olimpico on March 10.

Ranieri, however, is putting such thoughts out of his mind for now and has called on his players to do the same as they look to bridge the nine-point gap to Serie A leaders Inter Milan.

"We left a good impression in London, but also the three points and I'm interested in results," he said in a press conference today.

"We've lost the first leg and we'll be playing for everything in the return, but at the moment we have to only think about Napoli."

Juve will be favoured to eat into Inter's advantage, for 24 hours at least, as they come up against a Napoli who have not won away to Juve in 21 years and who have slipped down the table to 10th on the back of a seven-game winless run.

Inter do not play until Sunday, when they host resurgent Roma, and Ranieri knows it is weekends such as this that his side must pick up points on Jose Mourinho's men if they are to wrest the title away from the reigning three-time champions.

The 57-year-old, however, is not taking the Partenopei's threat lightly after Juve failed to breach their defence in their Coppa Italia match in Turin earlier this month.

Juve escaped from that tie 4-3 on penalties, and Ranieri knows his side must play better tomorrow.

"We know it will be a difficult match, we will find a battling team, who are going through an odd spell, but have five more points than last year," he said.

"We saw in the cup match that they are a difficult team to play."

Ranieri will be without midfielder Mauro Camoranesi, who fractured a rib in the defeat to Chelsea.

However, with his squad at almost full fitness the coach believes his team are well placed to attack the final three months of the season.

"We're recovering all our injured players. We wanted to get to March in this situation and we've done it and now we have to give everything in each of the three competitions," he said.

Napoli coach Edy Reja has admitted he can not put his finger on his side's recent slump, with their away form even more dire - they have lost each of their past seven away league fixtures.

"I cannot recognise this Napoli," Reja said in the wake of last week's 1-0 defeat to Genoa.

"The lads have to regain their self-belief and be sure about their own quality."

Reja's hopes will not be helped by the absence of Uruguay midfielder Walter Gargano who was ruled out of the trip north with an ankle injury sustained against Genoa.