Game Time Thread: Juventus vs. Frosinone

Today is Friday, Feb. 15. Juventus has a game tonight at everybody’s favorite place to watch a game — at least those of us around here — that is called Allianz Stadium. In a matter of five days, on Feb. 20, Juventus will play another game, this time in the Champions League in front of a crowd at another one of Europe’s new football jewels.

I mean no offense to Frosinone with what I am going to say.

Seriously, I mean it.

This game tonight, against a Frosinone team that is sitting in 19th place and currently has the third-worst defense in the league, doesn’t mean nearly as much as the one on Wednesday night.

That’s the easy part to figure out. A random Friday night game against a relegation battler over the first leg of a Champions League knockout round tie? Nah, that will never be the preference no matter how many beers we’ve consumed before kickoff that could possibly mess with our judgement.

Now, Juventus have a little business to take care of before completely turning their attention to Atletico Madrid on Wednesday night. Max Allegri’s starting lineup selections will almost certainly be influenced by the game that his team plays in a few days. Maybe Allegri plans to play a relatively full-strength squad knowing that Juve have a few extra days of rest before this Champions League fixture as compared to what it’s like most of the time. Maybe the fact that Juventus have an 11-point lead will mean that the breathing room atop the Serie A standings allows Allegri to rotate his squad with such a massive fixture on the immediate horizon.

Or maybe Allegri just rolls out the same 4-3-3 formation he plans to use against Atletico Madrid with the only difference being the absence of Giorgio Chiellini.

We don’t know, really.

What we do know is that Juve will be playing the game before the incredibly important at home, against a team that they should beat with relative ease no matter who’s playing and can make that 11-point lead over Napoli a 14-point lead with another win.

That sounds pretty good to me. Now go do it, my friends.

MATCH INFO

When: Friday, Feb. 15, 2019

Where: Allianz Stadium, Turin, Italy

Official kickoff time: 8:30 p.m. local time in Italy and around 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): Szczesny; De Sciglio, Bonucci, Chiellini, Cancelo; Khedira, Emre Can, Bentancur; Dybala, Mandzukic, Ronaldo

Juventus bench: Pinsoglio, Perin, Caceres, Pjanic, Matuidi, Barzagli, Bernardeschi, Spinazzola

Frosinone starting XI (4-4-2): Sportiello; Goldaniga, Salamon, Capuano; Zampano, Chibsah, Viviani, Cassata, Molinaro; Ciano, Ciofani

Frosinone bench: Marciano, Iacobucci, Gori, Paganini, Maiello, Valzania, Trotta, Sammarco, Brighenti, Krajnc, Beghetto, Pinamonti

HOW TO WATCH

Television: TLN (Canada); Sky Calcio 1, Sky Supercalcio HD, Sky Sport Serie A (Italy)

Online/mobile: ESPN+ (United States); DAZN (Canada); Eleven Sports 2 UK (United Kingdom); 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.