Champions League Game Time Thread: Juventus vs. Lyon

There is only one option for Juventus tonight.

They need to win, and they need to win by two goals or else the 1-0 hole they dug themselves into all the way back in February won’t be completely erased.

For some teams, that might not be that much of a hill to try to get over. But for this Juventus team, one that has kept us guessing all season as to what they actually are, even the one-goal deficit seems like a massive task to try to overcome. Tonight against Lyon, Maurizio Sarri and Co. know what they have to do — win, and win by a good margin.

It’s that simple ... at least on paper.

We know this Juventus team has been anything but consistent over the course of the last two months of the restart. They’ve looked good at times, but then they’ve looked very bad and completely lethargic and uninspired during others. One definitely outweighs the other, and even with the Scudetto race being what it was, finding a new gear never really happened. The team that struggled before the shutdown happened was the team that showed itself a lot during the restart.

So now we see what will happen when Juventus is up against the wall and the heat is truly on to get one of the team’s truly big wins of the season that will allow them to advance to the quarterfinals in Portugal. Whatever might lay in wait for Juve there, and it will be tough opposition no matter what, they actually have to get there to even have a chance of proving many of us wrong and upsetting a team or two.

Folks are just itching to bring out the “Cristiano Ronaldo returns to Portugal” stories. But that will only happen if Ronaldo and Juventus gets things done tonight.

They want to talk the talk. Let’s see if they can walk the walk, too.

MATCH INFO

When: Friday, Aug. 7, 2020

Where: Allianz Stadium, Turin, Italy

Official kickoff time: 9 p.m. local time in Italy and across Europe; 8 p.m. in the United Kingdom; 3 p.m. Eastern Time; 12 p.m. Pacific Time

STARTING LINEUP

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

Juventus bench: Buffon, Pinsoglio, Chiellini, Danilo, Rugani, Demiral, Ramsey, Matuidi, Muratore, Dybala, Olivieri

Lyon starting XI (3-5-2): Lopes; Marcal, Denayer, Marcelo; Dubois, Aouar, Guimaraes, Caqueret, Cornet; Ekambi, Depay

Lyon bench: Tatarusanu, Diomande, Andersen, Rafael, Dembele, Traore, Mendes, Reine-Adelaide, Jean Lucas, Tete, Bard, Cherki

HOW TO WATCH

Television: Galavision (United States); BT Sport 2 (United Kingdom); Sky Sport Uno (Italy)

Online/mobile: CBS All Access, TUDN.com, Univision NOW, TUDNxtra, TUDN App (United States); DAZN (Canada)’ BTSport.com (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.