Juventus rolls into the Dall'Ara nowhere near full strength. Four, maybe even five, players that aren't on the trip over to Bologna could very well be playing in tonight's game if they were healthy rather than sitting back in Turin watching from home. Throw in the resting Sami Khedira and you're well on your way to fielding a complete starting lineup of Juventus players who aren't going to be in action tonight.
But here's the beauty of this game we (usually) love to watch.
Just because important players are missing, the games won't stop. Juventus, minus some of its previously luxurious squad depth, will face Bologna tonight to do something they haven't be able to try and achieve all season — maintain their first-place standing in Serie A. The first 25 rounds were about working their way up the table. Now, it's about staying right where they are.
Easy? Probably not, but that's not very enjoyable.
Juventus are in no position to just coast to the finish line right now. There's too much time left to go before Juve can kick it into cruise control and roll to a fifth straight Scudetto. The lead atop the mountain is slim right now, all of one point over Napoli, who plays AC Milan on Monday night.
There's no room for error as the home stretch of the season starts to lurk there on the horizon. Unless we like talking about Juve trying to chase down the league leaders again, that is.
.@OfficialAllegri: "We cannot afford to get our approach wrong tomorrow." #BolognaJuve
— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) February 18, 2016
I, personally, like approach that involves Juventus winning game after game after game. I think I'm not the only person around these parts who feels the same way. If you have any objections, well, then maybe we're the wrong kind of crowd for you.
Lineups
Juventus XI (4-3-1-2): Gianluigi Buffon; Stephan Lichtsteiner, Andrea Barzagli, Leonardo Bonucci, Patrice Evra; Stefano Sturaro, Claudio Marchisio, Paul Pogba; Roberto Pereyra; Simone Zaza, Álvaro Morata
Juventus bench: Neto, Rubinho, Daniele Rugani, Filippo Romagna, Simone Padoin, Mario Lemina, Hernanes, Juan Cuadrado, Paulo Dybala, Andrea Favilli
Bologna XI (4-3-3): Antonio Mirante; Ibrahima Mbaye, Domenico Maietta, Daniele Gastaldello, Adam Masina; Godfred Donsah, Amadou Diawara, Saphir Taider; Luca Rizzo, Mattia Destro, Emanuele Giaccherini
Bologna bench: Angelo Da Costa, Erick Pulgar, Sergio Floccari, Juan Zuniga, Franco Brienza, Dejan Stojanovic, Anthony Mounier, Archimede Morleo, Alex Ferrari, Matteo Brighi, Marios Oikonomou, Kevin Constant
How to watch
TV: beIN Sports, beIN Sports en Español (United States, Canada); BT Sport Europe (United Kingdom); Sky Calcio 1, Sky Supercalcio HD (Italy)
Online: fuboTV, beIN Sports CONNECT U.S.A. (United States); beIN Sports CONNECT Canada (Canada); BT Sport Live Streaming (United Kingdom); 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.