Game Time Thread: Juventus vs. Pescara

What a difference a couple of days makes.

On Tuesday night, Juventus were facing one of the best teams in Europe in Barcelona. I get that the Barcelona team that Juve played a few days ago isn’t up to the same level as some of their vintage squads that conquered Europe, but it’s still Barcelona. And with it comes the headlines of Juventus putting Barcelona in serious trouble or that Paulo Dybala is somebody Juve should be building around. (For the record, the second one isn’t wrong, but just something that has materialized out of Tuesday night’s 3-0 win.)

And now, as the third weekend of April approaches, Juventus will next play a team in Serie A that has two wins. One and two. That’s all. That’s as many wins as Juventus have recorded in the last week. (Two wins in two different competitions, but still. Go with me here.)

Juventus vs. Pescara is about as completely opposite of what we saw on Tuesday night. There is no mystique in the matchup. There is no serious hype. There’s no European heavyweights going up against one another. It’s Serie A’s first-place team against its last-place squad that will almost certainly be relegated come the end of May. That’s one hell of a way to go from one end of the spectrum to the other.

And you know what?

Thank goodness it’s this way.

Juventus has business to take care of in Serie A. That much is quite true. It’s not like Max Allegri and his squad are sitting here entering the weekend with a double-digit lead atop the table like they’ve had earlier this season and in previous campaigns. The lead is just six heading into Easter weekend. Seeing as it’s Round 32, there’s going to have to be quite a bit to have happen for Juventus to fall behind Roma. With that being said, though, slipping up against a team that has TWO WINS all season, that wouldn’t be very good.

Nope, not good at all. Not one bit of good. Not even a sliver of good.

Max may say some things that make us scratch our heads sometimes, but this is not one of them.

MATCH INFO

Location: Stadio Adriatico – Giovanni Cornacchia, Pescara, Italy

Kick-off time: 3 p.m. local time in Italy; 2 p.m. in the United Kingdom; 9 a.m. on the East Coast; 6 a.m. on the West Coast

STARTING LINEUPS

Juventus starting XI (4-2-3-1): Neto; Lichtsteiner, Barzagli, Rugani, Asamoah; Marchisio, Pjanic; Cuadrado, Dybala, Mandzukic; Higuain

Pescara starting XI (4-4-2): Fiorillo; Zampano, Coda, Campagnaro, Biraghi; Memushaj, Bruno, Muntari, Coulibaly; Brugman, Caprari

WATCH IT

TV: PremiumSport 2 HD, Sky Calcio 1, Sky Sport 1 HD Italia (Italy)

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

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