Game Time Thread: Juventus vs. Genoa

Trips to Genoa haven’t always been that enjoyable over the past handful of years. It hasn’t really mattered who the manager has been at Juventus, when it comes to playing at the Luigi Ferraris it just doesn’t always seem to come as simple as it should.

Sounds a little like the 2020-21 season thus far, doesn’t it?

Things haven’t come easy for Juventus as we adjust to this new world led by Andrea Pirlo and his glorious beard. The good is that they’re coming off a very good win against Barcelona a few days ago. The not-so-good is that Juventus hasn’t exactly followed up their couple of good wins this season with another performance that resembles the previous one. And even though Juventus are facing a team like Genoa this evening that are in a serious funk and have won all of one game so far this season, this is the kind of trap game that could derail any kind of progress that was made midweek.

Progress is good.

Continuing to drop points against mid- or lower-table teams, now that’s something we’ve jsut already gotten completely tired of this season ... and we’re only 10 games into the damn thing.

So now we see how Juventus does in the game after the big game, one where a lot of things went right but there were also signs that there’s still plenty to improve upon. With the always-dangerous Atalanta waiting in the wings come midweek, now is not the time to suddenly go back to the on-and-off struggles that have hampered Pirlo’s squad for much of this season to date.

Maybe they can actually build off the Barcelona win and show signs of steps forward. Or maybe it will just be more of the same in the game following much of Juve’s Champions League showings this season. You know, the kinds of games where there’s very little between the two teams, and the end result is either Juventus dropping points or just barely scraping together a win.

As some of the other top teams in Italy face similar types of competition this weekend, it’s only that much more important that the midweek step forward isn’t followed up by one or two steps back. Juventus needs points just as much as they need some sort of consistency when it comes to how they’re playing.

Sure would be nice if that starts today.

MATCH INFO

When: Sunday, Dec. 13, 2020

Where: Stadio Luigi Ferraris, Genoa, Italy

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

STARTING LINEUPS

Juventus starting XI (3-4-1-2): Szczesny; de Ligt, Bonucci, Alex Sandro; Cuadrado, McKennie, Rabiot, Bentancur, Chiesa; Ronaldo, Dybala

Juventus bench: Buffon, Arthur, Ramsey, Morata, Danilo, Bernardeschi, Da Graca, Dragusin, Frabotta, Portanova, Kulusevski.

Genoa starting XI (4-4-2): Perin; Goldaniga, Bani, Masiello, Pellegrini; Radovanovic, Sturaro, Rovella, Lerager; Pjaca, Scamacca

Genoa bench: Paleari, Zima, Behrami, Zajc, Ghiglione, Pandev, Destro, Melegoni, Caso, Shomurodov, Dumbravanu, Czyborra

HOW TO WATCH

Television: TLN (Canada); Premier Sports 1 (United Kingdom); SKY Sport Serie A (Italy)

Online/mobile: ESPN+ (United States); DAZN (Canada); Premier Player HD (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.