Game Time Thread: Juventus vs. Hellas Verona

Ah, the Bentegodi. The old warhorse of a stadium that opened right before the calendar turned to 1964 has been an interesting place to play at for Juventus over the course of these last few years that Hellas Verona has been in Serie A.

To steal a line from an old Milan midfielder who shall remain nameless, it’s been sometimes good, sometimes maybe ... yeah.

Tonight’s trip to Verona and the stadium in which was not a pleasant visit to last time Juventus came to town is an opportunity to right the ship after more stupidity happened during the midweek loss to Sassuolo. It was, considering what happened with every single one of the teams above Juventus in the standings, a double whammy that saw Juve fall another three points behind the rest of the pack rather than keep pace with Serie A’s leading teams.

The last time Juventus was at the Bentegodi, it turned out to be a 1-1 draw, the kind of result that Juventus can’t afford to see any more of this season if they want to ensure that they at least have a puncher’s chance of making the top four. (Because, as you can probably guess, Juve’s currently sitting outside of the top four and they need a little bit of help to get in one of those spots for the first time this season.) It was the kind of game we’ve seen a whole lot of from Juventus in the last couple of years — both drab and unimpressive as well as simply an outing where Juve should have never dropped points to begin with.

Boy, I don’t know about you guys, but it feels like I typed that just a couple of days ago. Funny how that works out.

So maybe, just maybe, Juventus will take a turn for the better in this game after failing to do so in the last game. Maybe they will be able to start a new unbeaten streak with a win rather than dropping points at a time when they need to do nothing but win and win and win some more.

Maybe Juventus, despite missing a certain guy by the name of Freddie Church for this game, will look like it has some semblance of a coherent attack and score more than one goal for the first time in over a month. Maybe, just maybe, good things will happen.

Who knows if all this will actually, but a guy can hope ... right?

MATCH INFO

When: Saturday, Oct. 30, 2021

Where: Stadio Marc’Antonio Bentegodi, Verona, Italy.

Official kickoff time: 6 p.m. local time in Italy and across Europe; 5 p.m. in the United Kingdom; 12 p.m. Eastern Time; 9 a.m. Pacific Time.

STARTING LINEUPS

Juventus starting XI (4-4-2): Szczesny; Danilo, Bonucci, Chiellini, Alex Sandro; Cuadrado, Bentancur, Arthur, Rabiot; Dybala, Morata.

Juventus bench: Perin, Pinsoglio, de Ligt, Pellegrini, McKennie, Bernardeschi, Locatelli, Kulusevski, Kaio Jorge.

Hellas Verona starting XI (3-4-2-1): Montipò; Dawidowicz, Gunter, Casale; Faraoni, Tameze, Veloso, Lazovic; Barak, Caprari; Simeone.

HOW TO WATCH

Television: BT Sport 3 (united Kingdom).

Online/mobile: Paramount+ (United States); BTSport.com, BT Sport App (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.