Struggling runners-up Inter Milan and Roma meet for a Serie A classic late Sunday in the restart of the Italian league after a two-week break.
Inter slumped from first to third place with a run of two defeats and three draws and now sit nine points behind leaders Napoli.
The fifth-placed Giallorossi travel to Milan after clinching a single point from their last three games; they have three fewer points than the Nerazzurri, but are to play a game in hand at Sampdoria on Wednesday.
Inter coach Luciano Spalletti, who last June ended a second stint at Roma, this week welcomed Argentina centre-back Lisandro Lopez on loan from Benfica as Danilo D'Ambrosio and Brazilian Miranda are out with injury.
"Lisandro will help us a lot," said Milan Skriniar, a Slovak centre-back signed in July from Sampdoria to become a Nerazzurri key player. "We are few in defence and one more man is certainly good for us. With him we will be stronger."
Up front, Spalletti relies on his Argentine captain Mauro Icardi, who with 18 goals chases Lazio's league top scorer Ciro Immobile, on 20 from as many games.
Icardi, who struck twice when Inter won 3-1 at Roma in late August, will again confront his fellow countryman Federico Fazio.
"Inter aren't just Icardi," the towering defender Fazio said. "And we have changed a lot since the first meeting. This one will be different: we have to work hard to get better and shut Inter down."
Napoli also enjoyed a 3-1 win when they welcomed Atalanta early in the season, but the Bergamo side stunned them 2-1 in Naples on January 2 to qualify for the Italian Cup semi-finals.
The Neapolitans expect a hard time when they open the Sunday programme in Bergamo as the seventh-placed hosts usually give their best against big teams.
They held Lazio 3-3 and won 2-0 away to AC Milan in December before losing 2-1 at home to lowly Cagliari; but the last round saw them battle with 10 men to win 2-1 at Roma.
Ready to profit from a Napoli slip-up are champions Juventus, sitting one point adrift and due to close matchday 21 at home to Genoa late Monday.
Fourth-place Lazio host Chievo in a Sunday afternoon schedule also including Sampdoria v Fiorentina, Sassuolo v Torino, Udinese v Spal, Bologna v Benevento and Verona v Crotone.
Troubled giants AC Milan sit 11th when they visit Cagliari in the late afternoon.
