Game Time Thread: Juventus vs. Torino

At the very least, Juventus’ final month of the season isn’t boring — on paper.

And when it comes to the storyline heading into each one of the Italian champions’ final four games, it will basically be the same thing every single time. That sounds like a pretty easy thing to do, regardless of how little is riding on things for Juventus, that is.

But when it comes to Juve’s opposition, there is something riding on Friday night’s Derby della Mole at Allianz Stadium.

Of the five-team logjam that is all competing for the third and fourth spots in the Seie A standings and separated by all of six points entering the final month of the season, Torino is one of them. Just like Inter, last weekend’s opposition, was one of them. Just like next weekend’s opposition, Roma, will be one of them. And then opposition after that, Atalanta.

Basically, you name the team that is competing for third or fourth place in Serie A right now and there’s a pretty good chance they’re one of Juve’s last four opponents this season.

But first, there’s the matter of the final Derby della Mole of the season to deal with.

Yes, Juventus must play as well as they did in the second half against Inter this past weekend. Because, if they play like they did in the first half against Inter, then it’s going to be another long night with a lot of disgruntled supporters come the end of the final whistle. The second half was good. Not great, but good — and a whole lot better than how disinterested and completely run over Juve were getting by Inter in the opening 45 minutes.

So now we see just how interested in this derby Juve actually is. Maybe it will take them a half to snap things into shape. Or maybe, since this is the Turin derby we’re talking about here, they will come out firing right out of the gate without having to rely on Max Allegri’s halftime adjustments to actually make a dent in their opposition.

Either way, trying to slow down Torino’s aspirations should be enough motivation alone for a Juventus team that is simply playing for pride — and maybe the chance to hit 100 points — at this point with the eighth straight Scudetto officially put to bed two weeks ago.

MATCH INFO

When: Friday, May 3, 2019

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 (4-4-2): Szczesny; Cancelo, Bonucci, Chiellini, Spinazzola; Cuadrado, Pjanic, Matuidi, Bernardeschi; Ronaldo, Kean

Juventus bench: Pinsoglio, Del Favero, De Sciglio, Caceres, Barzagli, Pereira, Nicolussi Caviglia

Torino starting XI (3-5-2): Sirigu; Izzo, Nkoulou, Bremer; De Silvestri, Meite, Rincon, Lukic, Ansaldi; Berenguer, Belotti

Torino bench: Ichazo, Rosati, Baselli, Zaza, Singo, Damascan, Aina, Millico

HOW TO WATCH

Television: TLN (Canada); Premier Sports 2 (United Kingdom); Sky Sport Serie A, Sky Calcio 1, Sky Supercalcio HD (Italy)

Online/mobile: ESSPN+ (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.