Udinese face the first real test of their bid to join Italian soccer's Big Four at Serie A champions Inter Milan on Sunday.
The attacking club from the north east have fired their way into the top three with a Serie A high of 19 goals from ten games.
Five of those strikes have come from Fabio Quagliarella, whose hopes of an Italy recall were boosted by his game-saving pair against Bologna last week, and four from Italy winger Antonio Di Natale.
Di Natale is expected to be rested for Thursday night's UEFA trip to Spartak Moscow although he is offically suffering from ''a touch of the flu,'' coach Pasquale Marino said.
Udinese got a boost ahead of the UEFA match from former Juve star Michael Laudrup, who now coaches the Russian team.
The Dane said Udinese had already proven it was worthy of a place in the Serie A elite.
''It is a great team. We saw the matches against Tottenham and Genoa and were struck by the speed of its play'', Laudrup told reporters.
Inter, on the same points as Udinese, a point adrift of leaders AC Milan, have been criticised for uninspiring displays since losing top spot through two straight draws and a last-minute win against Reggina on Saturday.
A ramshackle defensive performance led to a 3-3 Champions League draw at Anorthosis Famagosta on Tuesday and Argentina defender Nicolas Burdisso could pay the price.
Brazil's Adriano is hoping for a recall after two weeks in the dog house because of poor discipline.
Milan, top of the table for the first time in over four years thanks to last week's 1-0 win over ten-man Napoli, go to Lecce, 11 points below them in 13th spot, on Sunday night.
Striker Filippo Inzaghi is hoping to stretch his goal-scoring run after signing a contract extension that will keep him at Milan until a month shy of his 37th birthday in 2010.
On Thursday night, Inzaghi will link up with Andriy Shevchenko in the UEFA Cup tie against Braga, their first start together since the Ukraine one-time San Siro idol returned from Chelsea this summer.
Bologna, one place above the bottom on six points, host Roma on Saturday night with ex-Lazio star Sinisa Mihajlovic making his coaching debut after Daniele Arrigoni was sacked following a 5-1 rout at Cagliari.
Roma, the fourth member of the Big Four along with Milan, Inter and Juventus, have slid badly this season after two years as runners-up to Inter but were buoyed by a great 3-1 Champions League win against Chelsea on Wednesday.
The Romans are fourth from last, just a point above Bologna, although they have a game in hand after an Olimpico clash against Sampdoria was rained off two weeks ago.
Against Chelsea they showed flashes of the champagne soccer that brought them close to glory and coach Luciano Spalletti says they can now ''free themselves and play proper football''.
Mihajlovic, assistant to Roberto Mancini before Jose' Mourinho came in this year, was a hard-as-nails defender for Red Star Belgrade, Sampdoria and Lazio and has vowed to work on the Bologna players' psychology to lift them out of the drop zone.
Juventus, sixth on 18 points, travel to third-from-bottom Chievo on Sunday after beating nine-times European champions Real Madrid in Madrid for the first time in 46 years to qualify for the Champions League last 16.
Skipper Alessandro Del Piero was feted in the Italian press for his two goals, with La Gazzetta dello Sport running the banner headline Ale King of Spain.
Chievo, on six points like Bologna, also has a new coach, Domenico Di Carlo, after Giuseppe Iachini was axed following Sunday's 3-0 loss at Palermo, the Verona side's sixth defeat in 10 games.
In the other matches, fourth-placed Napoli, a point behind Udinese and Inter on 20, host Sampdoria (15th, ten points) hoping to pick up from last week's defeat at Milan, where they only went down to an own goal.
Lazio, in fifth on 19 points, host Siena, 12th on 12 points.
Fiorentina, joint seventh with home-town rivals Genoa on 17 points, host Atalanta which has slipped from the top tier down to 11th spot on 14 points.
Serie A still has a much closer bunching than in previous year's at this point, with the top six teams separated by four points and the top 15 by just 12.
