Game Time Thread: Juventus vs. Hellas Verona

As we like to call these types of situations around these parts, this is the game before the big game. Hellas Verona has made the trip to Turin, but we know the bigger and much more important game lies in waiting a couple of days from now when Juventus faces Barcelona in one of the marquee games of this year’s group stage.

But before we can concentrate on Wednesday night, we need to concentrate on tonight.

And that means not looking ahead to Barcelona, but paying attention to Hellas Verona.

The team Juventus will play Wednesday night will be better than the team they play tonight. We know that. We realize that the Barcelona fixture was always going to be the biggest and most important one during this three-week stretch where Juve don’t have much time to rest at all. But when you consider that Juventus has dropped points in the last two Serie A matches in which they have actually stepped onto the field and faced an opponent, facing mid- or lower-table teams and getting all three points remains paramount as Andrea Pirlo tries to quickly settle in as the club’s new manager.

Maybe more than anything, getting some good vibes going ahead of Barca’s visit to Turin will be quite the development. We know that Juve will be challenged no matter what form Barcelona arrive in, and the last thing we need to see happen is watching them drop points against a side they should be beating more often than not.

So now we wait to see if they can actually do so.

It would be nice to cap a good week with another win. Maybe Juve will even play well, too. Wouldn’t that be a pretty good topper to end the week that saw Juventus win in their Champions League opener? I think it would be, but that’s just me.

MATCH INFO

When: Sunday, Oct. 25, 2020

Where: Allianz Stadium, Turin, Italy

Official kickoff time: 8:45 p.m. local time in Italy and across Europe; 7:45 p.m. in the United Kingdom; 3:45 p.m. Eastern Time; 12:45 p.m. Pacific Time

STARTING LINEUPS

Juventus starting XI (3-4-1-2): Szczesny; Danilo, Bonucci, Demiral; Cuadrado, Arthur, Rabiot, Bernardeschi; Ramsey; Dybala, Morata

Juventus bench: Buffon, Pinsoglio, Frabotta, McKennie, Bentancur, Portanova, Kulusevski, Peeters, Vrioni, Rafia

Hellas Verona starting XI (3-4-2-1): Silvestri; Lovato, Ceccherini, Empereur; Faraoni, Tameze, Vieira, Lazovic; Colley, Zaccagni; Kalinic

HOW TO WATCH

Television: RAI Italia North America (United States); RAI Italia North America, TLN (Canada); FreeSports TV UK (United Kingdom); Sky Sport Serie A, Sky Sport Uno (Italy)

Online/mobile: ESPN+ (United States); DAZN (Canada); LiveScore App (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.