Game Time Thread: Juventus vs. Chievo

Hello again, my friends. This is your friendly blog manager to remind you that international breaks suck and are boring as hell. But I am also here to remind you of another thing as well: The first international break of the season is officially over and Juventus, after two weeks of having players spread all over the world, are back on the field once more instead of missing from our lives.

Yes, the statement “JUVENTUS BACK!” is true.

This is good.

I like when Juventus can come back into our lives.

Now about that whole international break thing...

Anywho, today is the day where Juventus returns to the field to resume what has been a perfect start to the season to date. Well, not perfect in the sense of how they’ve played because there’s still plenty to improve upon over the next couple of weeks and months. It’s more about getting six points from two games and currently sitting atop the Serie A standings because of a plus-5 goal differential.

Yes, in that sense perfection is good.

Now they’re trying to improve upon the whole perfect game part.

Whether we see that against Chievo this evening remains to be seen. Max Allegri is expected to do some serious squad rotation with some regular starting players just coming back from international duty (like Paulo Dybala) or others dealing with injuries (Claudio Marchisio and Giorgio Chiellini) or others being rested with that little game against Barcelona on Tuesday in mind (like Gianluigi Buffon and Sami Khedira).

Do we get to see the official debut of somebody like Federico Bernardeschi?

Do we get to see the official debut of somebody else like Benedikt Howedes?

Do we get to see the first official start for somebody like Douglas Costa?

Maybe all of the above?

It’s going to be interesting to see what Juventus’ starting lineup looks like knowing all the different factors that have been thrown out there in the last 24-48 hours or so.

No matter what, though, it’s time to officially welcome Juventus back. I’ve missed you, friend. Please don’t leave us ... until the next international break we’ll be forced to sit through in a month or so.

MATCH INFO

Location: Allianz Stadium, Turin, Italy

Kick-off time: 6 p.m. local time in Italy; 5 p.m. in the United Kingdom; 12 p.m. on the East Coast; 9 a.m. on the West Coast

STARTING LINEUPS

Juventus starting XI: Szczesny; Lichtsteiner, Benatia, Rugani, Asamoah; Matuidi, Pjanic, Sturaro; Douglas Costa, Higuain, Mandzukic

Juventus bench: Buffon, Pinsoglio, De Sciglio, Barzagli, Howedes, Bentancur, Caligara, Cuadrado, Bernardeschi, Dybala

Chievo Verona starting XI: Sorrentino; Cacciatore, Dainelli, Gamberini, Gobbi; Castro, Radovanovic, Hetemaj; Birsa; Pucciarelli, Inglese

Chievo Verona bench: Pavoni, Seculin, Jaroszynski, Rigoni, Garritano, Stepinski, Leris, Cesar, Bani, Depaoli, Pellissier, Tomovic

WATCH IT

TV: RAI Italia America (United States); RAI Italia America (Canada); BT Sport Extra (United Kingdom); Sky Sport 1 HD Italia, Sky Supercalcio HD, PremiumSport HD, Sky Calcio 1 (Italy)

Online/Mobile: fuboTV, beIN SPORTS CONNECT USA (United States); DAZN Canada, beIN SPORTS CONNECT Canada (Canada); SKY Go Italia, Premium Play (Italy)

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