Champions League Game Time Thread: Juventus vs. Dynamo Kyiv

Hello, and welcome to Step 2 on this seven-game, 23-day journey that we are currently on coming out of the October international break. It has taken us to Ukraine, a place that in a few weeks will be freezing cold and a place that you probably would not want to be playing any kind of game whatsoever during the nighttime hours.

So, here we are, in the middle of October, looking to start the Champions League off on the right foot.

Can Juventus do it?

Ah, that’s the million-dollar question right now, isn’ it?

Juventus opens up the Champions League group stage tonight against Dynamo Kyiv in Ukraine. Andrea Pirlo, in his first game as a coach in Europe, will be facing the manager who gave him his debut at the tender age of 16 when he was with Brescia. That, of course, is a storyline that tells you just how there’s sometimes a totally random yet kinda awesome connection between two clubs that rarely see each other in the Champions League. (Or at least a whole lot less than which club Juve is going to be seeing come next week.)

But, for Juventus, it’s pretty simple: The goal is to start the group stage off with a win and try to get back to what worked against Sampdoria in the season opener rather than the last two games against Roma and Crotone.

Dynamo, a young and exciting team that will surely look to hit Juve on the counter, will obviously be a step up from what Crotone was over the weekend. Juventus will, obviously, have to be better than they were over the weekend. Much, much better than they were over the weekend. Sure, they’re shorthanded due to injuries and COVID-19 positives, but the amount of talent that will be on the field tonight is capable of getting three points against Dynamo Kyiv.

Or, at least we hope so.

Let’s just hope the next 90 minutes go better than the last 90 minutes we watched.

MATCH INFO

When: Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2020

Where: Dynamo Stadium, Kyiv, Ukraine

Official kickoff time: 7:55 p.m. local time in Ukraine; 6:55 p.m. in Italy and across Europe; 5:55 p.m. in the United Kingdom; 12:55 p.m. Eastern Time; 9:55 a.m. Pacific Time

STARTING LINEUPS

Juventus starting XI (3-4-1-2): Szczesny; Danilo, Bonucci, Chiellini; Chiesa, Bentancur, Rabiot, Cuadrado; Ramsey; Kulusevski, Morata

Juventus bench: Pinsoglio, Buffon, Arthur, Dybala, Demiral, Bernardeschi, Frabotta, Portanova

Dynamo Kyiv starting XI (4-2-3-1): Bushchan; Kedziora, Zabarnyi, Karavaev, Mykolenko; Sydorchuk, Shaparenko; Tsygankov, Buyalskiy, De Pena; Supryaha

Dynamo Kyiv bench: Neshcheret, Boyko, Popov, Verbic, Shepeliev, Tsitaishvili, Lednev, Andriyevskiy, Garmash, Rodrigues, Syrota, Duelund

HOW TO WATCH

Television: TUDN USA, UniMás (United States); BT Sport 1 (United Kingdom); Sky Sport Uno (Italy)

Online/mobile: CBS All Access, TUDN.com, Univision NOW, TUDNxtra, TUDN App (United States); DAZN (Canada); BTSport.com (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.