AC Milan and Juventus will try to reduce the gap on leaders Inter Milan as the champions face a tough match at the weekend with a trip to high flying Lazio.

The capital based club sit one place and one point off the Champions League qualifying places and earned a morale-boosting 2-1 victory at Milan in the Italian Cup on Wednesday.

Their controversial president Claudio Lolito claimed that Jose Mourinho's leaders hold no fears for him.

"I've never feared anyone. Lazio can match anyone. I hope that against the black-and-blues (Inter) we'll be able to show the same competitive spirit and to affirm on the pitch our abilities and determination," he said.

"(Against Milan) we showed our true potential, we deserved to win and played great football."

There are three more games to go before the winter break when the Serie A season shuts down for three weeks.

Juventus centre-back Giorgio Chiellini has set his teammates a target of three wins in a row before the break if they are to hang onto Inter's coat-tails, starting with the trip to Lecce on Sunday.

Juve have won six of their last seven Serie A matches but crucially lost to Inter at the San Siro in that spell.

"There's three more matches and we have to do everything to take home nine points," he said.

One of the big problems for Inter's two main rivals, though, is that they face each other in a week's time.

"We have two away games against teams that give 110 per cent and in between is the tough challenge with Milan, a match with three times as much importance."

Milan seem to have the simplest task of the big three this weekend as they host Sicilians Catania, who themselves have been having a great season and had they won at home to Lecce last week would have entered the top four.

Milan's biggest problem is that their form has not been good of late.

They lost at home to Lazio in the cup just a few days after they were beaten 3-1 at another Sicilian team, Palermo.

Fixtures
Saturday
Chievo v Roma, Lazio v Inter Milan

Sunday
AC Milan v Catania, Atalanta v Udinese, Cagliari v Palermo, Lecce v Juventus, Napoli v Siena, Reggina v Bologna, Sampdoria v Genoa, Torino v Fiorentina