Game Time Thread: Juventus vs. Roma

On what has already been an eventful day that doesn't involve anything to do with the Juventus team that will stepping onto the Stadio Olimpico field, we can now actually talk about the Sunday showdown against Roma.

Bye, transfer talk. Bye, transfer rumors. Bye, everything else.

It's Juventus vs. Roma. No, seriously it is. Forget the Julian Draxler or Kingsley Coman talk for a couple of hours. There's an actual game to play with actual Juventus players who are going to be here all season. And a lot of them are quite good at what they do, too! Like Paulo Dybala! And Mario Mandzukic! And Paul Pogba!

We'll be seeing all three of them when Juventus plays Roma in just a short bit of time.

.@OfficialAllegri: "#RomaJuve is one of the league's most important games. Roma have everything it takes to be a realistic title challenger"

— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) August 29, 2015

Because of the injury situation, Juventus manager Max Allegri has stayed with a 3-5-2 formation like everybody predicted he would in the lead-up to today's match. But there are several changes from the side that lost 1-0 to Udinese last weekend. In defense, Martin Cáceres comes in for Andrea Barzagli to play on the right side of the three-man backline, while Stefano Sturaro steps in for Roberto Pereyra and Dybala replaces the recently-departed Coman.

Let there be fun. And hopefully a Juventus win. Both would be okay with me.

Nothing like an early-season showdown to (hopefully) get our minds off the stupid, stupid transfer nonsense going on all around us these days. The key there is "hopefully," which is sometimes hard to achieve.

5 – Juventus and Roma will meet on MD2 for the 5th time in Serie A: two draws and a win each. Balance. #JuveRoma

— OptaPaolo (@OptaPaolo) August 30, 2015

Lineups

Juventus XI (3-5-2): Gianluigi Buffon; Martin Cáceres, Loenardo Bonucci, Giorgio Chiellini; Stephan Lichtsteiner, Stefano Sturaro, Simone Padoin, Paul Pogba, Patrice Evra; Paulo Dybala, Mario Mandzukic

Juventus bench: Neto, Rubinho, Andrea Barzagli, Daniele Rugani, Alex Sandro, Juan Cuadrado, Roberto Pereyra, Mattia Vitale, Álvaro Morata, Simone Zaza

Roma XI (4-3-3): Wojciech Szczęsny, Alessandro Florenzi, Kostas Manolas, Daniele De Rossi, Lucas Digne; Miralem Pjanic, Seydou Keita, Radja Nainggolan; Mo Salah, Edin Dzeko, Iago Falque

Roma bench: Morgan De Sanctis, Maicon, Leandro Castan, Elio Capradossi, Vasilis Torosidis, Norbert Gyomber, Salih Ucan, Adem Ljajic, Victor Ibarbo, Juan Iturbe, Gervinho, Francesco Totti

How to watch

TV: beIN Sports (United States); Rai International (United States, Canada); BT Sport Europe (United Kingdom); Sky Sport 1 HD Italia, Sky Calcio 1, Sky Supercalcio HD (Italy)

Online: beIN Sports Connect (United States); beIN Sports Connect Canada (Canada duh); SKY Go Italia (Italy)

Other live viewing options can be found here, and as always, you can also follow along with us live on Twitter. If you haven't already, join the community on Black & White & Read All Over, and join in the discussion below.