Game Time Thread: Juventus vs. Udinese

Today will be Max Allegri’s 300th game in charge of Juventus. For much of the previous 299, they have ended in wins. That’s not surprise considering that if you’ve been a reader of this blog for any decent amount of time, you’ve probably watched a good number of them, if not all of them.

On this 300th game in charge of Juventus, Allegri will be attempting to prevent a repeat of Game 299 at the helm.

Sure, there is no trophy on the line in a glorified friendly this time around, but the fact remains that Juventus enter tonight’s matchup against Udinese the epitome of a team that is the walking wounded. Some of that is physically, and Allegri has said as such with expected lineup changes coming our way. But also mentally, with the very real possibility that this team has spent so much emotional capital all of four days ago that there just isn’t much in the tank as they switch their attention back to the Serie A grind.

Which Juventus will we see?

Nobody knows for sure.

They could be tired. They could be angry. They could be angry but tired. They could be angry and storm right through a Udinese side they drew against to open the 2021-22 season. (That had more to do with there being some absolute stupidity that resulted in both of Udinese’s goals, so that’s why things went to hell in a hurry.)

For Juventus, though, things are pretty simple in terms of what has to happen. Whether or not that can actually happen, we shall see because that’s just how things go.

But we know that, with Atalanta playing Inter on Sunday, Juventus can’t afford the chance to get some help from the team that just beat them in the Supercoppa slip through their fingers. At worst, with a win this weekend Juventus will still be three points behind Atalanta in the race for fourth place. If they win and get some help, though ... that would be nice.

MATCH INFO

When: Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022.

When: Allianz Stadium, Turin, Italy.

Official kickoff time: 8:45 p.m. local time in Italy and across Europe; 7:45 p.m. in the United Kingdom; 2:45 p.m. Eastern Time; 11:45 a.m. Pacific Time.

STARTING LINEUPS

Juventus starting XI (4-2-3-1? 4-3-3?): Szczesny; Cuadrado, Rugani, de Ligt, Pellegrini; Bentancur, Arthur; McKennie, Dybala, Kulusevski; Kean.

Juventus bench: Perin, Pinsoglio, De Sciglio, Chiellini, Alex Sandro, De Winter, Bernardeschi, Rabiot, Locatelli, Morata, Kaio Jorge.

Udinese starting XI (3-5-2): Padelli; Perez, Nuytinck, Zeegelaar; Soppy, Arslan, Walace, Makengo, Udogie; Deulofeu, Beto.

HOW TO WATCH

Television: BT Sport 1 (United Kingdom); Sky Sport 251, Sky Sport Uno, Sky Sport 4K, Sky Sport Calcio (Italy).

Online/mobile: Paramount+, fuboTV (United States); BT Sport App, BTSport.com (United Kingdom); NOW TV, DAZN, 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.