Game Time Thread: Juventus vs. Bologna

When the “best” opponent on Juventus’ schedule the next handful of games is sitting in 10th place, you see that and start to think that it’s a major chance to get right.

Then again, you also think about how Juve has played as a collective whole — hint: not great! — since games resumed in Italy a little over a week ago.

Juventus’ Serie A season is officially back, and tonight’s game against Bologna at the Renato Dall’Ara is the Italian champions’ first chance to put the struggles of the Coppa Italia behind them. The heat has been turned up — at least in the press — on Maurizio Sarri to get things turned around in quick order knowing what’s on the horizon. There’s also plenty of heat on the players to be part of what starts going right — including the club’s biggest names and highest of profile stars.

If Juventus wants to get things right and make those glimpses of what they’ve done right to start out both the Milan and Napoli games last week, then it probably will have to be sooner rather than later or else those July showdowns with Atalanta and Lazio are gonna be bad ... well, you can probably guess.

So ...

Do we get the Juventus we’ve seen in the first 20 minutes or so against both Milan and Napoli?

Or, do we get the Juventus we’ve seen for the subsequent 65 or 70 minutes against both Mil and Napoli where they just simply looked like a team that doesn’t have much match fitness? (Or, as we’ve seen for a lot of this season, just regular old Juventus.)

With Bologna down players due to both injuries and suspensions, there might not be a better kind of scenario for Juventus to get back on the right track — or at least start to get there — tonight. We’ve said that before. We will likely say it again the way things are going. But if Juventus want to get right soon, there’s a pretty good chance of that happening against Bologna.

MATCH INFO

When: Monday, June 22, 2020

Where: Renato Dall’Ara Stadium, Bologna, Italy

Official kickoff time: 9:45 p.m. local time in Italy and across Europe; 8:45 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, De Sciglio; Bentancur, Pjanic, Rabiot; Bernardeschi, Dybala, Ronaldo

Juventus bench: Buffon, Pinsoglio, Danilo, Rugani, Ramsey, Matuidi, Muratore, Douglas Costa, Olivieri, Vrioni, Zanimacchia

Bologna starting XI (4-3-3): Skorupski; Tomiyasu, Danilo, Denswil, Dijks; Svanberg, Medel, Soriano; Orsolini, Barrow, Sansone

HOW TO WATCH

Television: RAI Italia North America (United States); RAI Italia North America, TLN (Canada); Premier Sports 1 (United Kingdom); Sky Sport Uno, Sky Sport Serie A, Sky Calcio 1 (Italy)

Online/mobile: ESPN+ (United States); DAZN (Canada); Premier Player HD, LiveScore App (United Kingdom); SKY Go Italia, NOW TV (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.