Juventus to begin Maurizio Sarri era against Parma at the Tardini

No matter what club Juventus began its season against last season, it was always going to be about one person — Cristiano Ronaldo. That’s what happens when you sign one of the best players to ever play the game; the story is about him, his debut and, no matter what the result may be, the in-game conversation and post-game headlines were always going to be centered around the man with No. 7 on his back.

This season, there’s another debut that is attached to Juventus’ season opener, although it’s not exactly going to get the same kind of worldwide attention as the one 12 months ago did.

At least, if it goes well.

Monday evening was Serie A fixture list release day, with Lega Calcio finally making its schedule available to the public. The official beginning of the Maurizio Sarri era got its date and place — Sunday, Aug. 25, against Parma at the Stadio Tardini. But it might as well be the next two weeks where things really pick, with Sarri’s first game against his former club Napoli at Allianz Stadium highlighting the second weekend of action on the peninsula and then a trip to Florence to face Fiorentina the first game out of the season’s first international break.

You wanna see what Sarri’s Juventus is made of right off the bat, well, there you go.

The full Juventus fixture is list is as follows. (Remember, the home team is listed first. Reverse fixtures start after the January holiday break.):

Besides the obvious fireworks in the first couple weeks of the season, Juventus do get a bit of a respite following the Fiorentina fixture as Champions League group stage action begins. The run of potential relegation battlers prior to the first Derby d’Italia of the season to open up October will provide Sarri with the chance (hopefully) set things up roster-wise so that the depth of this Juventus squad will be used to his advantage.

Juventus will close out the month of December — and the Serie A season — against Sampdoria, Cagliari and Roma. The Juventus-Roma matchup to close out the 2019-20 season will be played at Allianz Stadium. Not exactly the relegation battler that we’ve seen roll into Turin on Scudetto celebration day the last handful of years, is it?

Another noticeable difference between Juve’s schedule this season and last: The Bianconeri’s bigger games aren’t stacked up one after another. Outside of the Derby della Mole and the first Juve-Milan meeting in Rounds 11 and 12, respectively, there’s a good mix between big games and then mid- or lower-table clubs.

That will be nice — especially when the second half of the season begins and Juve could very well be competing on three fronts come February, March or April.

Stay tuned to BWRAO later in the day for a full breakdown of Juventus’ 2019-20 Serie A schedule.