Game Time Thread: Juventus vs. Inter Milan

Some of the time, the biggest match of the weekend is usually the last one to be played on Sunday night. When it comes to the 15th round of games in the Serie A season, we don’t have to even have to wait for the weekend to technically arrive at all.

Friday night isn’t exactly a classic footballing night in Italy. But tonight, the first Friday night in December, has the classic “IL BIG MATCH” billing to it all.

Juventus. Inter Milan. First place. Third place. Il Big Match, indeed.

Juventus are coming off a game where the stadium’s atmosphere was one that was both intense and rowdy all thrown together into one kind of unique combination. The atmosphere at Allianz Stadium, the best home field advantage that any team in Italy has going these days, probably isn’t going to be all that far off. (And let’s just hope there’s no, you know, stuff being said in the curva that will get Juventus fined.)

That’s no surprise really. It’s always going to be that way when Inter comes to Turin. They could play in a city park and there would be a sellout crowd just waiting there to watch and more than willing to have their voices get completely shot as a result.

The first Derby d’Italia of the season comes in a huge stretch of games for the current Serie A leaders who are eight points up on second-place Napoli.A few days from now Juventus will head to Switzerland to face Young Boys in the Champions League group stage finale where Group H’s top spot is still up for the taking. But before that, there’s the task of trying to hand Inter its third loss in all competitions within the span of the last four weeks.

So what better way than to actually go into the weekend than by beating Inter and, at the same time, pushing the lead atop the league table back into double digits?

That sounds pretty good to me — and probably at least 40,000 people who are about to file into Allianz Stadium as well.

MATCH INFO

When: Friday, Dec. 7, 2018

Where: Allianz Stadium, Turin, Italy

Official kickoff time: 8:30 p.m. local time in Italy and across Europe; 7:30 p.m. in the United Kingdom; 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time; 11:30 a.m. Pacific Time

STARTING LINEUPS

Juventus starting XI (4-3-3/4-3-1-2): Szczesny; De Sciglio, Bonucci, Chiellini, Cancelo; Bentancur, Pjanic, Matuidi; Dybala, Mandzukic, Ronaldo

Juventus bench: Perin, Pinsoglio, Benatia, Douglas Costa, Cuadrado, Emre Can, Rugani, Bernardeschi, Spinazzola

Inter Milan starting XI (4-3-3): Handanovic; Vrsaljko, Skriniar, Miranda, Asamoah; Gagliardini, Brozovic, Joao Mario; Politano, Icardi, Perisic

Inter Milan bench: Padelli, De Vrij, Vecino, Lautaro Martinez, Keita, Ranocchia, Borja Valero, D’Ambrosio, Candreva

HOW TO WATCH

Television: ESPN2, ESPN Deportes, RAI Italia America (United States); RAI Italia America, TLN (Canada); Eleven Sports 1 UK (United Kingdom); Sky Sport Serie A, Sky Sport Uno, Sky Calcio 1, Sky Supercalcio HD (Italy)

Online/mobile: ESPN+, ESPN Deportes+ (United States); DAZN (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.