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When we entered the weekend’s allotment of games, there were still two clubs in Italy’s top flight who hadn’t scored a goal yet. One of those, was Frosinone, who just so happened to be Juventus’ opponents last Sunday night. The other, Bologna, was going to be the next one up on the schedule as the fixtures get a lot more frequent now the latter days of September are officially here.
One of those teams scored goals.
The other one was shut out once again.
Here’s a hint as to which one got their first two goals of the season over the weekend:
That's all she wrote. An absolutely fucking pathetic "performance" from Roma. It may not happen soon, but you'd be entirely correct to question if EDF is right for this job.
— Chiesa di Totti (@chiesaditotti) September 23, 2018
(You could have also figured out which team actually scored goals based on what we were writing about in the hours following Juventus’ latest win in Serie A, but that’d be too easy.)
OK, so that’s also jumping on something and taking full advantage of a pretty understandable rage tweet from our blogging brethren over at CDT. (Hi, Bren.)
But as we see Juventus’ schedule gets busy with this first three games in an eight-day span, Juventus are getting two of Serie A’s truly struggling sides right off the bat before Napoli roll into Turin for the truly first big league game of the 2018-19 season.
So, basically, this is the game before the big game. And we all know that has always been quite an interesting kind of deal in the past. Or, at least in theory it is.
Juventus’ league form right now isn’t great. And with plenty of rotation and the return of the 3-5-2 formation expected for Bologna’s visit to Allianz Stadium tonight, who knows what that will mean for how Juve play against another struggling Serie A side.
They could cruise to a 2-0 win.
They could slow-play their breakdown of Bologna and win 2-0 like they did against Frosinone over the weekend.
For all we know Juventus’ best player this season, Federico Bernardeschi, could very well be starting as a wingback today. This is what we’re waiting to see.
So come on down and see what the game at Allianz Stadium before the big game at Allianz Stadium on Saturday night has to offer. At the very least Max Allegri will be screaming at his players from the sideline from about the third minute onward. (But that’s pretty much a given, so it’s not like I’m going out on a limb with that one, folks.)
MATCH INFO
When: Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2018
Where: Allianz Stadium, Turin, Italy
Official kickoff time: 9 p.m. local time in Italy and across Europe; 8 p.m. in the United Kingdom; 3 p.m. Eastern Time; 12 p.m. Pacific Time
STARTING LINEUPS
Juventus starting XI (3-5-2): Perin; Barzagli, Bonucci, Benatia; Cuadrado, Bentancur, Pjanic, Matuidi, Joao Cancelo; Ronaldo, Dybala
Juventus bench: Szczesny, Pinsoglio, Chiellini, Alex Sandro, Mandzukic, Emre Can, Rugani, Bernardeschi
Bologna starting XI (3-5-2): Skorupski; Calabresi, Danilo, Paz; Mbaye, Nagy, Dzemaili, Krejci, Dijks; Falcinelli, Destro
HOW TO WATCH
Television: RAI Italia America (United States); RAI Italia America, DLN (Canada); Eleven Sports 2 UK (United Kingdom)
Online/mobile: ESPN+ (United States); DAZN (Canada); DAZN Italy, 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.