Roberto Mancini has insisted that next week's Champions League showdown with Valencia will not distract Inter Milan from the immediate task of beating Livorno in Serie A on Saturday.
"We have to play in Livorno and try to win," the coach said after Wednesday's 0-0 draw with Udinese. "Then we'll leave for Valencia and start thinking about the Champions League".
The Serie A leaders could be forgiven for letting their minds wander to next Tuesday's game in Spain.
There the onus will be on them to attack, after the sides drew 2-2 at the San Siro Stadium in the first leg.
Things are much more relaxed on the domestic front.
Inter's record-breaking 17-match streak of league wins was broken Wednesday, but their massive 14-point lead remained intact as second-placed AS Roma could only draw 2-2 at Chievo Verona (15th).
The title seems to be in the bag.
But Inter are taking nothing for granted.
"Our minds are on the Livorno game," captain Javier Zanetti told the club's satellite TV channel.
"We must strike back right away in the championship, which is important and should not be neglected. We will think about Valencia after Livorno."
That said, Mancini may be tempted to rest some of his first-choice midfielders this weekend to make sure he is not left short-handed in the centre of the park in Valencia.
This is because midfielders Patrick Vieira and Esteban Cambiasso are injured and Dejan Stankovic has a minor muscle problem.
So losing another, like Luis Figo, Santiago Solari or Olivier Dacourt, could be disastrous.
Brazil striker Adriano is unlikely to take the field Saturday after pulling up with a thigh muscle strain against Udinese.
Livorno are 12th and have only won one of their last 13 games.
Roma play on Saturday afternoon too, in view of Tuesday's Champions League match in Lyon. They pay a visit to bottom club Ascoli.
Like Mancini, AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti also has to carefully manage an injury-hit squad ahead of Chievo's visit on Saturday night and Wednesday's European Cup clash with Glasgow Celtic.
His main problem is his back-line.
Seven Milan defenders have physical problems - captain Paolo Maldini, Cafu, Kakha Kaladze, Alessandro Costacurta, Alessandro Nesta, Serginho and Marek Jankulovski.
Curiously though, it was the attack that let Milan down in Wednesday's 0-0 draw with third-placed Palermo in Sicily.
Milan created lots of chances, but lone striker Alberto Gilardino failed to put them away. Brazil star Kaka fluffed a penalty too.
Ronaldo is expected to return to the starting line-up against Chievo.
He only played 20 minutes at the end of the Palermo game and cannot face Celtic because he is cup-tied.
Sixth-placed Milan need to beat Chievo to make up some ground on Lazio and Empoli, their rivals for fourth place and the last qualification slot for next year's Champions League.
Lazio are fourth with 40 points, three more than Milan after beating Catania 3-1 Saturday. They entertain Sampdoria (7th) on Sunday afternoon.
Empoli (5th), who beat Messina 3-1 to move one point ahead of Milan, visit Udinese.
Palermo take on struggling Sicilian rivals Messina (18th) away from home.
The third top-flight Sicilian club, Catania (11th), will play their home game against Siena (13th) at a neutral venue behind closed doors.
Catania have been banned from using their home ground for the rest of the season after the death of a police officer in rioting during the derby with Palermo last month.
There are three more Serie A games this weekend, all on Sunday afternoon: Cagliari (16th) - Atalanta (10th), Fiorentina (8th) - Torino (14th) and Parma (19th) - Reggina (17th).
