Game Time Thread: Juventus vs. AC Milan

In America-based sports, most notably in colleges, we have something called “Rivalry Week.” Over the next four days, Juventus is going to experience its very own and very unique kind of Rivalry Week both domestically and in Europe.

Tonight, Juventus hosts Milan at Allianz Stadium. On Tuesday night, Juventus hosts Real Madrid at Allianz Stadium in the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals.

Those two games, those very two big games, will each have their respective impact on two of the three competitions Juventus are currently taking part in as we get ready to hit the penultimate month of the 2017-18 season.

Considering Juventus has all of a two-point lead atop the Serie A table, looking ahead to Cristiano Ronaldo’s visit to Turin in a couple of days probably wouldn’t be the best of ideas. That’s not only because dropping more points like what happened two weekends ago before that stupid thing known as an international break arrived and bored us out of our respective minds.

We’ve worried about injuries that have actually taken place.

We’ve worried about injuries happening to players who aren’t even on international duty.

We’ve been consumed by injuries because it seems as though we’ve talked about them as much as actual games over the last two or three months.

But now, players are starting to get healthy — for now, at least.

Giorgio Chiellini is available for selection after having to withdraw from the Italian national team setup over the international break. Alex Sandro is called up and available for selection. Juan Cuadrado is in the squad for the first time in months. And it sounds like Federico Bernardeschi isn’t going to need surgery.

Sounds good, huh?

Yeah, time to go play some ball now.

So, let’s go ahead and start out this crucial four-day stretch of games in a positive kind of manner, shall we? I’m down if you’re down, which should be cool to all of us on the black and white side of tonight’s little rivalry game at Allianz Stadium.

MATCH INFO

When: Saturday, March 31, 2018

Where: Allianz Stadium, Turin, Italy

Kickoff time: 8:45 p.m. local time in Italy; 7:45 p.m. in the United Kingdom; 2:45 p.m. on the East Coast; 11:45 a.m. on the West Coast

STARTING LINEUPS

Juventus starting XI (3-5-2): Buffon; Barzagli, Benatia, Chiellini; Lichtsteiner, Khedira, Pjanic, Matuidi, Asamoah; Dybala, Higuain

Juventus bench: Pinsoglio, Szczesny, De Sciglio, Cuadrado, Marchisio, Douglas Costa, Rugani, Sturaro, Bentancur

AC Milan starting XI (4-3-3): G. Donnarumma; Calabria, Bonucci, Romagnoli, Rodriguez; Kessie, Biglia, Bonaventura; Suso, Andre Silva, Calhanoglu

AC Milan bench: A. Donnarumma, Storari, Antonelli, Musacchio, Zapata, Locatelli, Mauri, Montolivo, Borini, Cutrone, Kalinic

HOW TO WATCH

Television: RAI Italia America (United States); RAI Italia America (Canada); BT Sport 2 (United Kingdom); Sky Supercalcio HD, Sky Sport 1 HD Italia, Sky Calcio 1, PremiumSport HD (Italy)

Online/Mobile: beIN SPORTS CONNECT, fuboTV (United States); DAZN Canada, beIN SPORTS CONNECT Canada (Canada); BT Sport Live (United Kingdom); Premium Play, 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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