Juventus' players still believe they can claim a 10th consecutive Serie A title this season, according to head coach Andrea Pirlo. 

The Bianconeri are 10 points behind leaders Inter, although they have a game in hand on Antonio Conte's side.

That comes at home to Spezia on Tuesday, with Juve looking to address a worrying run of form which has seen them win just once in their past five games across all competitions. 

They have, however, won their five most recent top-flight matches at the Allianz Stadium, scoring at least two goals in each of them (14 in total) and keeping a clean sheet in the past three. 

Despite the gap to Inter, Conte insists his side have not given up hope of sealing yet another Scudetto. 

"I wouldn't say we can chase the Scudetto if I didn't know that the team thinks so too," he told a media conference on Monday. 

"I know the lads believe it, they train well and want to go back to winning the title and this makes me feel comfortable.

"We don't look at who is above us or behind us, we concentrate on ourselves. The goal must remain the same. There are many games and as long as there's room to recover, we will be there.

"The initial goal was to win them all, we know we lost a few points, but that is in the past. We have to look to the future and the future is Spezia."

Juve have won 21 of their past 23 Serie A home matches against promoted sides, keeping 14 clean sheets in the process.

They face a spirited Spezia side, though, with only Inter (14) gaining more points from a losing position than Vincenzo Italiano's men (nine) in Serie A this season. Seven of those came in away matches, which is the joint-most alongside Benevento. 

And Pirlo knows his side will have to be at their best to claim all three points. 

"Spezia are proving to be up for Serie A, having a great championship," the Juve boss added. "They have achieved great results against the big teams too. It will be a difficult match.

"It will be an important match for us and we must continue to fight for the Scudetto. We will have to play an intense game from the first minute.

"We know we have been caught on four occasions, but each match was different. We have analysed the mistakes made and we will try to avoid repeating them."

Real Madrid are reportedly planning a €90million move for Borussia Dortmund star Erling Haaland ahead of next season.

Haaland, 20, is being targeted by Europe's biggest clubs after starring for the Bundesliga outfit.

Madrid are ready to make a move for Haaland ahead of 2021-22.

TOP STORY – REAL MADRID PLAN €90M HAALAND MOVE

Real Madrid are plotting a €90m move for Borussia Dortmund star Erling Haaland, according to ABC.

The report says the LaLiga giants will attempt to get Luka Jovic, who is on loan at Eintracht Frankfurt, or Mariano Diaz to be part of the deal.

Haaland has scored 23 goals in as many games for Dortmund this season.

ROUND-UP

- After landing Dayot Upamecano, Bayern Munich have other targets in mind. Bild reports the Bundesliga giants are also interested in Norwich City full-back Max Aarons, Borussia Monchengladbach midfielder Florian Neuhaus, Rennes' Eduardo Camavinga and Lucien Agoume, who is on loan at Spezia from Inter. The Daily Mail also says Bayern are stepping up their pursuit of Aarons.

- David Luiz looks set to extend his Arsenal stay. The Independent claims the Premier League side are set to offer the defender another extension, with his deal expiring at season's end.

- Staying at Arsenal and Alexandre Lacazette's future at the club seems uncertain. The Daily Express reports Arsenal have been told they can sign Celtic striker Odsonne Edouard for just £15m.

- Without a club since leaving Trabzonspor in March last year, Daniel Sturridge has been offered to Newcastle United, according to 90min. West Brom and Sheffield United are also reportedly interested in Sturridge.

Milan boss Stefano Pioli acknowledged "nothing worked" as his side slumped to their first Serie A away defeat since December 2019 against Spezia on Saturday.

The Rossoneri were dismal at Stadio Alberto Picco and failed to register a single attempt on target in a league game for the first time since August 2019 as goals from Giulio Maggiore and Simone Bastoni sealed a famous 2-0 triumph for the hosts. 

It marked the first time Milan had lost a top-flight game to a newly-promoted side since they were defeated by Benevento in April 2018. 

The result means Inter – who Milan face next weekend – can leapfrog their rivals at the league summit if they overcome Lazio on Sunday.

Milan have now lost three times in the league this season and Pioli said this was the first reverse that was deserved. 

"It will be a valuable lesson for all of us; we realise that if we don't perform at a certain level, we will be embarrassed like this," he told DAZN.

"Spezia won deservedly. This is our first deserved defeat of the season as we did not have enough quality or intensity and our opponents quite rightly took advantage.

"We are not a team capable of really winning ugly. We always try to focus on passing, intensity and tempo, so if we lack those elements, we are not as effective.

"We struggled throughout the game, nothing worked, including my choices and the performances of the players. Obviously, this isn't what Milan are like, so we need to prove that from next week.

"Perhaps we weren't sharp enough to react to the difficulties that Spezia provided. We did expect them to be aggressive and had prepared counter-measures, but they didn't work and we made mistakes, so nothing went right.

"If we don't move the ball around quickly enough, we allow our opponents to get back into shape and become predictable. Nothing worked this evening, on the ball or off it."

Milan face Red Star Belgrade in the first leg of their Europa League round-of-32 tie on Thursday and Pioli is expecting a much improved performance from his side.

"We're well aware of how negative this performance was, just as we're well aware of the difficulty of the games coming up and well aware of what Milan are capable of," he added.

"Anyone who saw us in training this week would not have expected this performance, and yet it happened. It was an off night, we need to get back on track.

"This was a bad performance, it's only right we leave the field with our heads down, but from tomorrow we get back on our feet."

With this shock victory, Spezia have now picked up more Serie A points against sides currently in the top half of the table (13) than those they have earned against teams in the bottom half (11).

Spezia registered their first ever win over Serie A leaders Milan as Giulio Maggiore and Simone Bastoni sealed a famous 2-0 triumph at Stadio Alberto Picco on Saturday. 

Milan fell behind 11 minutes into the second half when captain Maggiore opened his league account for the season from close range before Bastoni added a sumptuous second after 67 minutes. 

Stefano Pioli's side failed to register a single attempt on target as they slipped to their first Serie A away defeat since Atalanta beat them in December 2019. 

The result means Inter – who Milan face next Sunday – can leapfrog their rivals at the league summit if they overcome Lazio on Sunday.

Milan started sluggishly and would have fallen behind after 13 minutes had Gianluigi Donnarumma not superbly pawed over Riccardo Saponara's powerful close-range strike. 

Theo Hernandez and Alessio Romagnoli both headed wide before the half-hour mark as Milan belatedly woke from their slumber, although Pioli's side were unable to test Spezia goalkeeper Ivan Provedel before the interval – the first time they had failed to register a shot on target in the first half of an away game since September 2019. 

Spezia deservedly went ahead in the 56th minute when Maggiore slotted into an empty net after Romagnoli's last-ditch tackle on Matteo Ricci had diverted the ball into his path. 

A shellshocked Milan fell further behind 11 minutes later when Bastoni whipped home a glorious stike from 18 yards after Nahuel Estevez had rolled a free-kick back into his stride. 

Milan poured forward late on, but Spezia held on to record what is comfortably the most impressive win in their debut Serie A campaign.

Stefano Pioli remains confident Milan can agree contract extensions to keep Hakan Calhanoglu and Gianluigi Donnarumma at the club. 

Both goalkeeper Donnarumma and midfielder Calhanoglu – two influential players in helping Milan sit top of Serie A – have expiring deals, along with talismanic striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic. 

Technical director Paolo Maldini recently said Milan hope to reach terms to retain the trio beyond the current campaign, with head coach Pioli wanting them to stay as they build for the future.  

"The important thing is that both the club and the technical group have already had their say in a convincing way," Pioli said of contract negotiations ahead of Saturday's trip to Spezia.  

"We are happy to be able to continue the journey together and the boys are also very determined. 

"We all want to do well, the club is building something important and we are all focused on doing the best." 

Donnarumma has played in 20 of 21 league games under Pioli this season. The 21-year-old boasts a save percentage of 73.33 in Serie A – only Lazio's Pepe Reina (73.68) has managed better out of all the goalkeepers to feature at least 10 times in the competition. 

Calhanoglu, meanwhile, has a league-leading eight assists despite missing three games after testing positive for coronavirus. Indeed, since the beginning of December, he has set up seven goals in Serie A, the joint-most in the top five European Leagues, along with Kingsley Coman at Bayern Munich. 

The Turkey international will be back in the team to face Spezia as Milan aim to avoid a first league loss on the road since December 22, 2019. 

"Calhanoglu will start, either (Ante) Rebic or (Rafael) Leao will play on the left," Pioli said on Friday. "We will see what will happen – we want to get to the end of the season without regrets.

"We have ample room for improvement, we must raise our level because expectations are now high."

Pioli received praise from Milan CEO Ivan Gazidis for his work this week, with the pair united in their aim to help the Rossoneri become a dominant force again, both domestically and in Europe.

"We are in tune and his statements have made me very happy, our relationship with time has grown," Pioli said of the comments made by Gazidis.

"With the club we are going in the same direction and we have only one goal, to bring Milan back up. There have never been divisions and we must continue like this."

Roma head coach Paulo Fonseca said the club will discuss the error made in the Coppa Italia upset against Spezia after the club used six substitutes.

Spezia shocked Roma 4-2 after extra time in the Italian capital, where Fonseca's side capitulated and sensationally made one substitution too many in the last 16 on Tuesday.

Roma would have been eliminated by default even if they won at home to Spezia after Fonseca introduced Ibanez for Pedro in extra time, having already made five changes to his line-up.

Fonseca's Roma believed they could use six substitutes – an additional change in extra time as seen in cup competitions – but that was not the case in the Coppa Italia.

Asked about the mistake at Stadio Olimpico, under-fire boss Fonseca – who oversaw a humiliating 3-0 derby loss to Lazio in Serie A on Friday – said post-match: "If there is an issue, we have time to discuss that internally. If there is."

Fonseca was looking to bolster his defence after centre-back Gianluca Mancini was shown a second yellow card in the 91st minute, and goalkeeper Pau Lopez saw red just seconds later.

With Roma down to nine men, Spezia capitalised on their numerical advantage as Riccardo Saponara and Daniele Verde struck in extra time.

Roma had rallied from 2-0 down inside 15 minutes to force extra time via Lorenzo Pellegrini's 43rd-minute penalty and Henrikh Mkhitaryan's fine finish with 17 minutes remaining.

Hosts Roma conceded two goals during the first 15 minutes of play, in all competitions, for the first time since January 2020 as they were eliminated in the Coppa Italia round of 16 for just the third time in the last 20 seasons – twice against Spezia.

It was also the first time since 2015-16 that Roma played extra time in the Coppa Italia.

"We had a bad start to the game; the penalty, and then another moment that's hard to really understand," Fonseca said. "But the team responded, they played well, they created chances and it could have been a different result.

"We missed so many chances and so then, with two men sent off, it all became much harder."

"It's a tough moment. We wanted to go further in the cup, but I can't say anything bad about the attitude of the players. We have to now focus on the next game," Fonseca continued.

Pressure is mounting on Fonseca, who was appointed in 2019, but the Portuguese tactician said: "My future has been up for discussion ever since I got here. I am encouraged by the position we have in the league right now – it's where we want to be – and I have confidence in my team. But when we don't win I am always being discussed. I have to stay focused on my job."

Roma – winless in three matches across all competitions having conceded nine goals – are fourth in Serie A, nine points behind leaders Milan through 18 games.