Game Time Thread: Juventus vs. Atalanta

The easy way to open this game thread would be to pose a question. Something along the lines of “Man, what do you think Juventus will do coming off such a terrible, terrible loss six days ago?” That would be the easiest thing I’ve ever come up with. Easier than saying Gianluigi Buffon is a legend or that Paulo Dybala is a good looking young man.

But, I am going to take the easy way out.

Let me pose to all of you one singular question that is on top of everybody’s minds: What do you think Juventus will do coming off such a terrible, terrible loss six days ago?

Ha, and you thought I was going to ask you for a Barcelona-Real Madrid prediction.

This is the million dollar question, boys and girls, so maybe I’m not taking the easiest of ways out. But hey, it’s a topic that everybody is wondering about, so it’s not like I’m in the incredibly small minority on this one.

We all want to see how Juventus is going to respond following the embarrassment that was the 3-1 loss to Genoa last Sunday. It was a bad performance. A really bad performance. And the hope is that even though it was a very bad showing from a team that had no business playing that poorly, that it served as the kind of gut-check moment that a team struggling to find form like Juventus currently is usually needs.

Strange as it may seem, Atalanta enters tonight’s game as the more in-form team. And it’s not even close, really. That means Juventus won’t only have to try and right their wrongs from the last weekend, month and most of the season, but also try and slow down an Atalanta squad that hasn’t lost in its last 10 games — nine of which have been wins — and has risen all the way up to fifth in the table entering the weekend.

So what would be the late-2016 version of this? Maybe Juventus looking like a good team again? Maybe Juventus beating a good team by a comfortable margin? And yes, if you were wondering if I’m still bitter about last weekend’s loss to Genoa, I most certainly am. Sorry, but not really sorry.

MATCH INFO

Location: Juventus Stadium, Turin, Italy

Kick-off time: 8:45 p.m. local time in Italy; 7:45 p.m. in England; 2:45 p.m. on the East Coast; 11:45 a.m. on the West Coast

STARTING LINEUPS

Juventus starting XI (4-3-1-2): Buffon; Lichtsteiner, Rugani, Chiellini, Alex Sandro; Khedira, Marchisio, Sturaro; Pjanic; Higuain, Mandzukic

Juventus bench: Neto, Audero, Benatia, Evra, Cuadrado, Hernanes, Lemina, Asamoah, Kean

Atalanta starting XI (3-5-2): Sportiello; Toloi, Caldara, Masiello; Conti, Kessie, Freuler, Spinazzola; Kurtic; Petagna, Gomez

Atalanta bench: Bassi, Bastoni, D'Alessandro, Dramé, Grassi, Latte, Mazzini, Migliaccio, Pesic, Raimondi, Zukanovic

WATCH IT

TV: beIN SPORTS USA (United States); beIN Sports Canada (Canada); BT Sport 3 (United Kingdom); Sky Supercalcio HD, SportItalia, PremiumSport HD, Sky Calcio 1, Sky Sport 1 HD Italia (Italy)

Online: fuboTV, beIN SPORTS CONNECT U.S.A. (United States); fuboTV Canada, beIN SPORTS CONNECT Canada (Canada); BT Sport Live Streaming (United Kingdom); SKY Go Italia (Italy)

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