Juventus vs Fiorentina - Marchisio urges Juventus to stay on their toes

Juventus midfielder Claudio Marchisio has urged his team-mates to continue their surge up the table by beating bitter rivals Fiorentina in Sunday's crunch match in Serie A.

Fiorentina are currently second, five points ahead of Juventus in fifth, but the Old Lady have found their stride in recent weeks after a slow start to the season.

Juventus have won five games in a row in the league and could make up further ground given third-placed Napoli are up against fourth-placed Roma this weekend.

"The match on Sunday is very important," midfielder Marchisio told juventus.com.

"It's an opportunity to change things up at the top of the table, as there are a few big clubs playing one another and we need to be able to take advantage of the situation.

"Fiorentina are an excellent side and they deserve to be where they are at this moment in time. We'll need to be on our toes, even if we're playing at home.

"We've shown considerable consistency of late with the five league wins in a row, but we know that there remains plenty of work to be done."

Juve's momentum was halted somewhat by a Champions League defeat to Sevilla on Tuesday, although the Italians still qualified as runners-up from Group D.

The form of Alvaro Morata, who has scored only three goals in 19 appearances this season, and Paul Pogba has been questioned but Marchisio gave his full backing to his team-mates.

"There are times when the goals come more easily. For players like Pogba and Morata, it's normal that the expectations are high as they both have enormous talent," Marchisio said.

"They're training hard every day and are always there for the group. They'll be finding the net again sooner rather than later.

"What's important is that the team continues to grow both domestically and in Europe, where we've already achieved the objective of qualifying for the Champions League round of 16."

Fiorentina have enjoyed an excellent start to the campaign and this is the first time since 1998 that they have been ahead of Juventus at this stage of the season.

Juve, however, boast a strong record in this fixture. No team have recorded more wins (70) or score more goals (247) against Fiorentina than the Bianconeri.

"We live for these sorts of emotions, so the game with Juve will definitely be exciting," Fiorentina boss Paulo Sousa told the official club website.

Juventus winger Juan Cuadrado is set to play his first competitive match against his former club.

Cuadrado left Fiorentina for Chelsea in February but failed to make an impact with the Blues and is currently on loan in Turin.