Game Time Thread: Juventus vs. AC Milan

The last time Juventus was at the San Siro to play AC Milan, the final product was ... bad. It was the first leg of the Coppa Italia semifinals, with a Cristiano Ronaldo penalty pretty much the only salvation to come out of a bland Juventus performance and give the Bianconeri a chance of advancing in the tournament.

Now, we won’t mention how that went. Nor do we really need to go into what happened the last time Juventus and Milan played one another in the second leg of that Coppa Italia tie. (Which, of course, was three months apart seeing as global health pandemics are evil.)

But what we have taking place tonight is a matchup where both teams enter the San Siro playing well and coming off big wins. Milan’s maybe more of the case, and we’re totally OK with that seeing as it was completely beneficiary for Juventus and the title race that has now seen the eight-time defending champions put some room in between themselves and their closest competiton.

As I type this, Lazio is currently tied with Lecce 1-1 at halftime. By the time Juventus takes the field for warmups at the San Siro, that could change. Or it could be the same. Either way, when this game in Milan kicks off, Juventus will know which of the three options that will happen if they were to win against Milan.

For all we know, this could work out to be another day where Juve’s lead in Serie A gets extended and they enter the Atalanta game with an over more cushion between themselves and Lazio. That would be nice, wouldn’t it?

It would also be nice, regardless of how the Lecce-Lazio game ends up finishing, if we get to see Juventus put in another quality performance, this time against a team that actually has something else to play for the rest of this season. We know it won’t be all that easy without Paulo Dybala and Matthijs de Ligt due to both being suspended. But maybe, just maybe, the fact that the opportunity to extend the Serie A lead even further will be enough to push Juve over the edge once more.

That, definitely, would be nice.

MATCH INFO

When: Tuesday, July 7, 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, Bonucci, Rugani, Danilo; Bentancur, Pjanic, Rabiot; Bernardeschi, Higuain, Ronaldo

Juventus bench: Pinsoglio, Buffon, Chiellini, Ramsey, Douglas Costa, Alex Sandro, Matuidi, Olivieri, Muratore, Coccolo, Vrioni

AC Milan starting XI (4-2-3-1): G. Donnarumma; Conti, Kjaer, Romagnoli, Theo Hernandez; Kessie, Bennacer; Saelemaekers, Paqueta, Rebic; Ibrahimovic

AC Milan bench: Begovic, A. Donnarumma, Calabria, Bonaventura, Calhanoglu, Leao, Biglia, Colombo, Krunic, Gabbia, Laxalt, Maldini

HOW TO WATCH

Television: 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.