Game Time Thread: Juventus vs. Torino

On this day, we shall see the latest edition of the Derby della Mole.

That doesn’t always mean we’re about to see the best football of the season take place over the next couple of hours. But it could very well mean that you’re also see the majority of the next 90 minutes of game time be not all that pretty whatsoever.

Ah, the beauty of the Turin derby.

Sometimes the end product isn’t always the best. But, a lot of the time lately, the end result has been one that has been very good to Juventus against their granta-themed crosstown rivals.

So now we head into a rare Friday night fixture where Juve can, at least temporarily, move five points clear of Atalanta in the race for fourth place. Knowing full well that Atalanta is on the Thursday-Sunday Europa League grind and have the Sunday lunchtime kickoff against Fiorentina to deal with later in the weekend, this is very much the chance for Max Allegri’s to get some breathing room between themselves and La Dea.

You know, the thing they couldn’t do in Bergamo last weekend.

So now as Juventus faces its city rival all of a few days before a big Champions League knockout round fixture, there’s the obvious need to keep things focused on the domestic duties first and foremost. It’s not going to be simple against a Torino side that has proven to be quite a tough for much of this season. (Although, the last couple of results, loses to Udinese and then Venezia, don’t exactly look great compared to what Toro had done up until that point.)

Can they continue the trend of getting wins over little brother?

Can the Juve attack that has created a good number of scoring chances lately actually put more than one of them away against little brother?

And, dammit, can Juventus make sure that, no matter if there’s late-game drama, the trend of beating Torino in the Derby della Mole continue?

This time, at the Allianz Stadium, let’s just hope that a potential slim win goes the way of the guys who have done just that so many times over the last decade. That would be nice.

MATCH INFO

When: Friday, Feb. 18, 2022.

Where: 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, 2:45p.m. Eastern time, 11:45 a.m. Pacific time.

STARTING LINEUPS

Juventus starting XI (4-3-3): Szczesny; Cuadrado, de Ligt, Rugani, Alex Sandro, Pellegrini; Zakaria, Locatelli, Rabiot; Dybala, Vlahovic, Morata.

Juventus bench: Perin, Pinsoglio, De Sciglio, Pellegrini, Arthur, McKennie, Kean, Kaio Jorge, Akè.

Torino starting XI (3-4-2-1): Vanja; Djidji, Bremer, Rodriguez; Singo, Lukic, Mandragora, Vojvoda; Pobega, Brekalo; Belotti.

Torino bench: Berisha, Izzo, Zima, Pjaca, Ansaldi, Sanabria, Seck, Ricci, Aina, Pellegri, Linetty, Buongiorno.

HOW TO WATCH

Television: CBS Sports Network (United States); BT Sport 2 (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.