Game Time Thread: Juventus vs. Atalanta

When you’ve got first place going against third place, there are obvious major Serie A table ramifications at stake no matter that a non-draw kind of result takes place. And seeing as we’ve seen Lazio drop points AGAIN earlier in this (hopefully) fine Saturday, there will either be some semblance of a Scudetto race still alive in Italy are one pretty much put to bed depending on how things go at Allianz Stadium tonight.

It’s rather simple.

Although, trying to beat the most in-form team in Italy might not be.

Juventus could go 10 points up with a win over Atalanta in Turin tonight. That is very much easier said than done, of course — especially with the way Atalanta has played in recent weeks. It is Atalanta’s current form teamed with the post-suspension of play stumbles from Lazio that has put Gian Piero Gasperini’s side in position to jump into second place and pull within six points of Juventus if they are to beat the reigning champions on their home turf tonight.

Atalanta could extend their impressive run with a win, making it 10 wins in a row.

Or Juventus could make it a 10-point lead over Lazio. (You know, the thing we were hoping to see happen earlier in the week but then all those stupid, stupid things happened in the second half against AC Milan at San Siro.)

We haven’t seen Juve lose many times this season — Tuesday night’s 4-2 loss was just their fourth league defeat of the season — but the way that it happened was the most worrying part of it all. Now we get to see how Maurizio Sarri will try and get his team to bounce back knowing full well they could put the title race away and the Serie A lead into double digits with a win over the hottest team going in Italy these days.

There could very much be some fireworks in Turin tonight.

It’s a full strength Juventus.

It’s a full strength Atalanta.

What could possibly go wrong? (Don’t answer that. It could be a lot.)

MATCH INFO

When: Saturday, July 11, 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 LINEUPS

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

Juventus bench: Buffon, Pinsoglio, Chiellini, Alex Sandro, Rugani, Pjanic, Ramsey, Muratore, Douglas Costa, Higuain, Olivieri

Atalanta starting XI (3-4-2-1): Gollini; Toloi, Palomino, Djimsiti; Hateboer, De Roon, Freuler, Gosens Castagne; Gomez, Ilicic; Duvan Zapata

Atalanta bench: Rossi, Sportiello, Caldara, Sutalo, Tameze, Czyborra, Muriel, Malinovskyi, Castagne, Bellanova, Pasalic, Colley

HOW TO WATCH

Television: RAI Italia North America (United States); RAI Italia North America, TLN (Canada); Premier Sports 1 (United Kingdom)

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