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Juventus' Paulo Dybala tells Gonzalo Higuain: 'I'm taking first penalty'

Paulo Dybala has called Juventus' first penalty of the season as he looks forward to vying for a place in the Bianconeri attack with Gonzalo Higuain and Mario Mandzukic, and playing alongside the likes of Dani Alves and Miralem Pjanic.

With such a wealth of talent in the Juventus front line, and the addition of the Bosnian, who often took penalties for Roma, competition for those 12-yard shots is not lacking this season, but Dybala told La Gazzetta dello Sport that he has bagged the first.

"I've already told 'Pipa' [Higuain] that I'm taking the first," Dybala said. "Then it will be up to [Marco] Landucci [Juve's assistant coach]. These days, we've had a few of us stopping behind to practice [set-pieces] -- Pjanic, Dani Alves, me, [Roberto] Pereyra and Higuain. We've built a really good Thursday club.

"We all want to take them, but you don't get that many opportunities in matches so we'll have to reach some kind of agreement."

Dybala is nevertheless expecting plenty of opportunities to score goals from open play with the Serie A champions' summer recruits raising the level of a side who were already in a league of their own last season.

"We've got more faith, but also we have really good players who have great attributes and this is going to be a formidable arm for us," the 22-year-old said. "We know we're one of the strongest clubs around and now we can play even better than last year.

"When you have people like Dani and Pjanic, you can find those balls and more space easier. There's no need to say anything [about Dani Alves], you just need to look at him play. He's technically extraordinary, extremely strong and I think he's really raised the technical level of this squad."

Despite being overwhelming favourites to win a record sixth straight Scudetto, Dybala has warned of the pitfalls of feeling omnipotent.

"There is a risk," he said. "Even last year everybody was saying that if we didn't win, it would be a failure because everybody expected that fifth straight Scudetto. This year we want the sixth to go down in history.

"We are Juve and if we don't have a great season, it will be a failure. The only thing that matters here is winning, but we are ready. We're going to fight for all of the trophies."