Game Time Thread: Juventus vs. Arsenal

For the first time in over a month, Juventus will step onto an opponents’ field at their home stadium and play 90 minutes of football. The catch, of course, is that this matchup against Arsenal is a friendly because we are in the final 24 hours of the 2022 World Cup occupying much of our thoughts about the sport.

We also know it’s a friendly because Juve’s starting lineup will look a lot, lot different than what we will be seeing come their official return to the field in January.

But before we can get to the first fixture of 2023 against Cremonese, Juve has a friendly or two to play to start to ramp back up again following the lengthy layoff.

Tonight, Max Allegri’s extremely shorthanded Juventus squad full of teenagers called up from the youth setup takes on Premier League leaders Arsenal at the Emirates. How things will look with so many regulars out of the lineup is anybody’s guess because this is far from the starting lineup we will see come a few weeks from now. But, at the very least, we’ll get a look at some players we saw during the preseason U.S. tour as well as the likes of Nicolo Fagioli and Fabio Miretti getting some more run.

Because everybody likes when Fagioli and Miretti play, right?

Right!

So let’s see what the kids got in ‘em. Because with a traveling squad full of youngsters, there’s going to be a lot of youngsters with numbers in the 30s, 40s and maybe even 50s getting their first senior squad minutes — even though they’re not official — in this one.

MATCH INFO

When: Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022.

Where: Emirates Stadium, London, England.

Official kickoff time: 6 p.m. local time in London and the United Kingdom; 7 p.m. in Italy and across continental Europe, 1 p.m. Eastern time, 10 a.m. Pacific time.

STARTING LINEUPS

Juventus starting XI (3-5-2): Perin; Rugani, Gatti, Riccio; Aké, Fagioli, Locatelli, Barrenechea, Soulé; Miretti, Kean.

Juventus bench: Pinsoglio, Vinarcik, Huijsen, Rouhi; Nonge, Zuelli, Besaggio, Iling-Junior; Aké, Cerri, Mbangula.

Arsenal starting XI (4-2-3-1): Ramsdale; White, Holding, Gabriel, Tierney; Xhaka, Partey; Nelson, Odegaard, Vieira; Nketiah.

Arsenal bench: TBA

HOW TO WATCH

Television: Sky Sport Uno, Sky Sport Calcio (Italy).

Online/Streaming: Juventus TV (free worldwide); Sky Go Italia, DAZN, 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.