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A late add to Juventus’ preseason schedule has allowed a lot of us to go down memory lane. You see, Juve’s visit to Trieste tonight is the first time they’ve been back to the Stadio Nereo Rocco in quite a few years. There aren’t many names left from the squad that clinched the Scudetto in Trieste seven years ago. But those who know, they know.
Tonight, however, is basically marking the start of a journey rather than the end of a season-long one.
It’s one final friendly for first-year manager Maurizio Sarri and his Juventus squad tonight. However, Sarri won’t actually be there seeing as he’s back home in Turin after coming down with the flu earlier this week. Cristiano Ronaldo also won’t be in Trieste after suffering a muscle injury prior to the Juventus family game against the primavera earlier this week.
But pretty much everybody else is in town and available for this friendly against a side that is all the way down in Serie C this season.
So there could be goals.
Hell, there could be a lot of them.
There’s Paulo Dybala playing as a false 9 as he’s flanked by Federico Bernardeschi and Douglas Costa, so there’s potential for some fun right there.
There’s also Sami Khedira in the starting XI, so that ... might not be as fun as seeing Dybala playing from the opening kickoff, but it’s happening.
Maybe we’ll get to see the unofficial Juventus debut of Aaron Ramsey, a player that Sarri is surely going to be counting on once he’s fully reached match fitness after finally joining the squad for training a few days ago.
And there’s also the good and happy feelings that come with the reminder that, even though he’s not starting tonight’s game, Matthijs de Ligt is a Juventus player.
So, sit back and watch Juventus hopefully not look like total garbage against a club that’s two divisions lower than they are. Because we’ll be able to toss it aside as a friendly tonight, but this time next week will have a few more important factors coming along with it. You know, like the game actually mattering in the Serie A standings.
MATCH INFO
When: Saturday, Aug. 17, 2019
Where: Stadio Nereo Rocco, Trieste, 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
L'XI ⚪️⚫️ per #TriestinaJuve #FinoAllaFine #ForzaJuve pic.twitter.com/Qp5zpidRKU
— JuventusFC (@juventusfc) August 17, 2019
HOW TO WATCH
Television: Sky Sport Serie A (Italy)
Online/mobile: Sky Sport Go (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.