Game Time Thread: Juventus vs. Lecce

Maurizio Sarri doesn’t want to take tonight’s opposition, Lecce, all that lightly. He isn’t buying the fact that Lecce enters the day in 18th place and the relegation zone or the fact that tonight’s opposition was absolutely hammered by AC Milan in their first Serie A game of the country’s restart.

He ain’t buying it.

And you know what? That’s OK.

I guess it makes sense when you don’t have any actual senior team fullbacks available for tonight’s visit from Lecce to Allianz Stadium. Or the fact that the squad depth is rather ... hmmm ... tight these days knowing that there are injuries up and down the roster. Despite all of that, and there’s still plenty to be skeptical about right now, Juventus has a chance to extend its lead atop the Serie A table to seven points with a win over Lecce tonight.

That might not have been something you thought was possible a few days ago.

But the door has been opened up for Juventus to go through thanks to Papu Gomez and his buddies at Atalanta. So we say thank you to Papu and the rest of the wonderful and entertaining folks at Atalanta. We hope you never change and continue to do fun things.

Well, except when Juve plays against Atalanta in a couple of weeks. Yeah, that’s a given.

Lecce. Right. Lecce!

Lecce is not very good. Even with a patchwork defense and very little options off the bench, there’s only one acceptable outcome here, everybody — and I’m pretty sure I don’t need to remind you guys what that is. Juventus hasn’t been great, but at least showed some signs of improvement the last time they took the field a few days ago. Maybe a couple of goals from open play would ease some of the stresses we have about the current state of the team. Maybe another shutout — regardless of Lecce being in the relegation zone right now — would also ease some of the stresses we have about the current state of the team.

Let’s just hope the Juve we see is more like the one we saw against Bologna as compared to the first two games out of the suspension of play. More like it, but still better. That would be nice.

MATCH INFO

When: Friday, June 26, 2020

Where: Allianz Stadium, Turin, 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 LINEUP

Juventus starting XI (4-3-3): Szczesny; Cuadrado, de Ligt, Bonucci, Matuidi; Bentancur, Pjanic, Rabiot; Bernardeschi, Dybala, Ronaldo

Juventus bench: Buffon, Pinsoglio, Rugani, Wesley, Ramsey, Muratore, Douglas Costa, Higuain, Olivieri

Lecce starting XI (3-4-2-1): Gabriel, Donati, Lucioni, Paz; Rispoli, Petriccione, Tachtsidis, Brayan Vera; Shakhov, Mancosu; Hawk

HOW TO WATCH

Television: TLN (Canada); Premier Sports 1 (United Kingdom); Sky Calcio 1, 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.