Game Time Thread: Juventus vs. Sampdoria

One win. That’s it. That’s all Juventus needs to wrap up a ninth straight Scudetto.

Nothing more.

Nothing less.

It’s that simple when Juventus hosts Sampdoria at Allianz Stadium tonight to wrap up the 36th round of football in Serie A this season. This is the same situation Juventus found themselves in just a couple of days ago. It was that day where Juve coughed up another second-half lead, lost 2-1 to relegation-threatened Udinese and was forced to put the Scudetto celebration on hold for the time being.

But, things are just as simple to figure out again.

The results that Juve needed to potentially clinch the title without even playing didn’t happen Saturday, thus making this late Sunday night the one thing that needs to go the reigning champions’ way for there to be another title celebration in Turin. Not that we really expected things to totally go in Juve’s favor since this is a season where logic and reason have been somewhat thrown out the door and expecting the top-of-the-table sides to always do the thing they’re predicted to do doesn’t end very well sometimes.

But the fact still remains that Juventus, the Serie A leaders who have only won once in their last five games, have a chance to win the league title tonight. Maybe in another year that wouldn’t be the case. But in this season, one that has seen a whole lot of stupid things happen even when you don’t consider the three-month suspension of play, that is where we find ourselves with three Juventus games to go.

So maybe tonight will be the night where a title will be clinched.

I sure hope so. I really don’t feel like writing the same kind of match preview for the third consecutive game. You probably don’t want to read that, either — which I understand.

MATCH INFO

When: Sunday, July 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 LINEUPS

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

Juventus bench: Buffon, Pinsoglio, Rugani, Demiral, Ramsey, Bentancur, Muratore, Higuain, Bernardeschi, Olivieri, Zanimacchia

Sampdoria starting XI (4-4-2): Audero; Depaoli, Yoshida, Chabot, Augello; Linetty, Thorsby, Bertolacci, Jankto; Ramirez, Quagliarella

HOW TO WATCH

Television: RAI Italia North America (United States); RAI Italia North America, TLN (Canada); Premier Player 1 (United Kingdom); Sky Sport Serie A, 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.