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Ah, the Mapei Stadium. Sometimes it’s fun to go there, other times it turns out to be a total pain in the ass. We’ve seen the best and worst of Juventus at Sassuolo’s home stadium over the last couple of seasons — and that’s not an overstatement.
As lunchtime in Italy arrives, we get to see which side of Juventus will show.
☀️ An early start today, but the ⚫️⚪️ are ready!
— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) September 17, 2017
⚽️ #SassuoloJuve
⏰ 12.30 CEST
Mapei Stadium
#FINOALLAFINE #FORZAJUVE pic.twitter.com/ly2ByYVEbG
It’s an early Sunday for Max Allegri and his squad (and for those of us like yours truly who live on the west side of the United States). Lunchtime is also game time, and now we get to see just exactly they will rebound from Tuesday night’s disappointing Champions League group stage opener against Barcelona in Spain.
They could win and play well — which is something I’m sure a lot of us would like to see take place.
They could win and play like buckets full of meh — which is something I’m sure wouldn’t exactly have a lot of people singing Allegri’s praises.
Or they could do what they’ve done a few times over the last few years — which wouldn’t be all that great at all.
So let us sit back and see what Juventus can do during this lunchtime affair where they will be facing a Sassuolo team that has yet to score a goal in their first three Serie A games. That figure suggests that things could be interesting knowing how Juve’s defense has been sometimes good, sometimes bad so far this season.
But hey, at least Juventus have been successful in pretty much all of their previous dozen lunchtime games. It may not be lunchtime everywhere, though, so let’s all just hope that Juventus keep this little trend going...
We've won 1️⃣1️⃣ of our last 1️⃣2️⃣ early kick-off matches in @SerieA_TIM #SassuoloJuve ⚪️⚫️ #ForzaJuve pic.twitter.com/jMeXej7pvd
— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) September 17, 2017
Do that again, please, Juventus. I ain’t staying up in the middle of the night to see you do a whole lot of nothing today.
MATCH INFO
Location: Stadio Città del Tricolore, Reggio Emilia, Italy
Kick-off time: 12:30 p.m. local time in Spain; 11:30 a.m. in the United Kingdom; 6:30 a.m. on the East Coast; 3:30 a.m. on the West Coast
STARTING LINEUPS
Juventus starting XI (4-2-3-1): Buffon; Lichtsteiner, Rugani, Chiellini, Alex Sandro; Pjanic, Matuidi; Cuadrado, Dybala, Mandzukic; Higuain
Juventus bench: Szczesny, Pinsoglio, Barzagli, Benatia, Asamoah, Bentancur, Sturaro, Douglas Costa, Bernardeschi
Sassuolo starting XI (3-5-2): Consigli; Letschert, Cannavaro, Acerbi; Lirola, Sensi, Magnanelli, Mazzitelli, Adjapong; Politano, Falcinelli
Sassuolo bench: Pegolo, Missiroli, Biondini, Matri, Peluso, Scamacca, Gazzola, Goldaniga, Rogerio, Cassata, Duncan, Ragusa
WATCH IT
TV: beIN Sports USA, beIN Sports en Español, RAI Italia America (United States); ,beIN Sports Canada, beIN SPORTS en Español, Rai Italia America (Canada); BT Sport 3 (United Kingdom); Sky Supercalcio HD, Sky Calcio 1, PremiumSport HD
Online/Mobile: beIN SPORTS CONNECT USA, fuboTV (United States); beIN SPORTS CONNECT Canada, DAZN Canada, fuboTV Canada (Canada); SKY Go Italia (Italy)
Other live viewing options can be found here, and as always, you can also follow along with us live and all the stupid things we say on Twitter. If you haven't already, join the community on Black & White & Read All Over, and join in the discussion below.
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