Game Time Thread: Juventus vs. Inter Milan

One week and plenty of talk about when it was actually going to take place, the second Derby d’Italia is finally upon us. The circumstances as to why Juventus hosting Inter Milan at Allianz Stadium in an incredibly important March fixture are far from what anybody wants to see happen, but this is the current situation that Northern Italy finds itself in during these very stressful coronavirus times.

Juventus is back.

The stress is back.

But we don’t know if the Juventus from before this unexpected break will be back or if some kind of new, relatively competent team will show its face for the first time in weeks.

Allianz Stadium is the venue — albeit an empty one without any kind crowd for the next couple of hours — for the almost-top-of-the-table clash between these two bitter old rivals. With a win, Juventus, far from its best form can at the very least keep pace with Lazio, while a loss for Inter in Antonio Conte’s first-ever game at Allianz Stadium as a visiting manager could very well spell the end to their Scudetto hopes this season.

There is quite a bit riding on this result.

And it doesn’t matter if there’s a crowd present.

(Although it would be nice if there was a crowd actually there, but it is completely understandable as to why the Italian government has decided to play the next month’s worth of games without any kind of crowds.)

But the fact still remains that the last time we saw Juventus it was when the squad was putting forth one of the worst European showings we’ve seen from them in quite some time. The struggles of the entire season manifested all together at together at once in France, with Lyon playing far from fantastic yet Juve struggling to do much of anything right.

We’ve been waiting to see how the team responds. And because of coronavirus, we’ve been forced to wait a week longer than we thought we would.

It’s going to be weird as hell watching Juventus play Inter without a crowd — especially in Turin based on the atmospheres we’ve seen at Allianz Stadium since it opened. But the situation calls for it, and there’s much more important things to worry about these days.

MATCH INFO

When: Sunday, March 8, 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 (4-3-3): Szczesny; Cuadrado, de Ligt, Bonucci, Alex Sandro; Ramsey, Bentancur, Matuidi; Douglas Costa, Higuain, Ronaldo

Juventus bench: Buffon, Pinsoglio, De Sciglio, Chiellini, Pjanic, Khedira, Dybala, Danilo, Rugani, Rabiot, Bernardeschi

Inter Milan starting XI (3-5-2): Handanovic; Skriniar, De Vrij, Bastoni; Candreva, Vecino, Brozovic, Barella, Young; Lukaku, Lautaro Martinez

Inter Milan bench: Padelli, Berni, Godin, Gagliardini, Alexis Sanchez, Ranocchia, Asamoah, Borja Valero, Eriksen, Esposito, D’Ambrosio, Biraghi

HOW TO WATCH

Television: TLN (Canada); Premier Sports 1 (United Kingdom); Sky Sport Serie A, Sky Calcio 1, Sky Supercalcio HD, Sky Sport Uno (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.