Game Time Thread: Juventus vs. AC Milan

I take you back a few weeks when Juventus was preparing to go to Florence to face Fiorentina. Things weren’t great at the time for Max Allegri’s squad — and little did we know that they were going to get worse — but the same could be said for the team that they were going to play that weekend.

The words “Juve’s getting Fiorentina at a pretty good time” were written more than a few times during the course of that Juve-Fiorentina match preview.

Or least it felt that way. Don’t mind me while I don’t actually look things up with just a few short clicks to back up my point.

Juventus faces another big away fixture this weekend, this time traveling to the San Siro to face an AC MIlan side that is coming off a 3-0 faceplant of a loss against Chelsea in the Champions League on Wednesday night. Neither club is exactly in the greatest of shapes right now, but it’s Juventus and not Milan that is actually coming into this matchup of two of the biggest names Serie A has to offer with a win in their last game.

Yes, if one was to say it, Juventus — at least on paper — is catching Milan at a good time. It’s a much better than, say, when Milan was unbeaten in their first six Serie A fixtures of the season and actually up around the top of the table rather than sitting in fifth place and dealing with an injury list so long that it resembled that of Juventus’ from the month of September.

While some of those injured players — most notably Theo Hernandez — are expected back for this Saturday evening showdown in Milan, Juventus is very much facing the kind of test in which they failed so frequently at last season. You know, the whole not winning a game against a team that finished in a Champions League spot. Juve can’t afford to drop points much at all these days, but they especially can’t afford to struggle even more than before against top-4 opponents. (I know Milan are not technically in the top 4 at the moment, but you get what I’m saying here, folks.)

So here’s to hoping that Juve can do more good than bad and come away from the first trip to Milan this season with something to show for it. You know, something other than leaving us completely frustrated with what we just watched.

MATCH INFO

When: Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022.

Where: Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, Milan, Italy.

Official kickoff time: 6 p.m. local time in Italy and around 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, Bremer, Alex Sandro; Cuadrado, Locatelli, Rabiot, Kostic; Vlahovic, Milik.

Juventus bench: Pinsoglio, Perin, Gatti, Rugani, McKennie, Miretti, Paredes, Fagioli, Kean, Soulé.

AC Milan starting XI (4-3-2-1): Tatarusanu; Kalulu, Gabbia, Tomori, Theo Hernandez; Tonali, Bennacer; Pobega, Brahim Diaz, Leao; Giroud

AC Milan bench: Mirante, Jungdal, Ballo-Toure, Dest, Thiaw, Vranckx, Krunic, Bakayoko, De Ketelaere, Adli, Rebic, Origi.

HOW TO WATCH

Television: BT Sport 1 (United Kingdom).

Online/Streaming: Paramount+ (United States); fuboTV Canada (Canada); BT Sport app, BTSport.com (United Kingdom); 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.