Game Time Thread: Juventus vs. Sampdoria

It’s the game after that game. In just a few minutes, Juventus will be back on the field again, but this time it’s in Serie A and not the Champions League. There is no more Champions League football for our bianconero buddies for the rest of the season. Unlike so many years prior, it will be a different Italian team carrying the Serie flag deep into the tournament rather than Juventus.

Not that I’m still bitter or anything.

The return to action is here. The final stretch to win Scudetto No. 7 in a row is here. Juventus has seven games remaining, starting with today’s 6 p.m. local time kickoff against Sampdoria at Allianz Stadium. It is the start of a three-game-in-eight-days stretch that will start and end with games played in Turin, the backend of it against the one team other than Juventus that still has a shot at winning the Serie A title this season.

We know who that is.

We know that the lead over them is four points entering the weekend. (Although, this post will go live before Napoli’s game against Milan ends, so maybe things will still be at four come kickoff in Turin.)

We know that it could very well be the same come next weekend.

We know that, quite possibly, it could be a number other than four come next weekend because that’s just how things work sometimes.

But I do know that I would like it to be four points or something greater than that just because sometimes can go a little haywire.

The thing is, though, a lot of us are expecting Juventus be angry tonight. You know, the kind of squad that comes out after an extremely disappointing and frustrating result and absolutely demolishes whatever opponent is in front of them. That opponent just so happens to be Sampdoria, one of the two teams that has actually handed Juventus a loss through the first 31 Serie A rounds this season.

Angry Juventus will be a welcome sight based on what happened in Madrid a few days ago.

And maybe, just maybe, a Samp squash could be in order.

That sounds like just what the doctor ordered. Or at least something all of us want to see.

MATCH INFO

When: Sunday, April 15, 2018

Where: Allianz Stadium, Turin, Italy

Kickoff time: 6 p.m. local time in Italy; 5 p.m. in the United Kingdom; 12 p.m. high noon on the East Coast; 9 a.m. on the West Coast

STARTING LINEUPS

Juventus starting XI (4-3-3): Buffon; Howedes, Rugani, Chiellini, Asamoah; Khedira, Pjanic, Sturaro; Cuadrado, Dybala, Mandzukic

Juventus bench: Pinsoglio, Benatia, Barzagli, Alex Sandro, Lichtsteiner, Marchisio, Sturaro, Bentancur, Douglas Costa, Higuain

Sampdoria starting XI (4-3-1-2): Viviano; Sala, Silvestre, Ferrari, Regini; Barreto, Torreira, Praet; Ramirez; Quagliarella, Duvan Zapata

Sampdoria bench: Belec, Tozzo, Andersen, Caprari, Alvarez, Linetty, Strinic, Verre, Capezzi, Kownacki

HOW TO WATCH

Television: beIN SPORTS USA, Rai Italia America (United States); beIN Sports Canada, Rai Italia America (Canada); BT Sport 3 (United Kingdom); Sky Calcio 1, Sky Supercalcio HD, PremiumSport HD (Italy)

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