Game Time Thread: Juventus vs. Spezia

We again find ourselves in a situation where a door has been left open for Juventus to make things better for themselves in the race for fourth place in Serie A.

On Saturday, we watched Atalanta drop points for what feels like the 20th time in the last couple of months thanks to a loss to Roma. In previous weeks, that hasn’t always worked out as well as it should have for Juventus, with the chance to extend the distance between themselves and Atalanta not always fully taken advantage of before.

So here we are again.

As Juventus hosts Spezia in the first Serie A fixture of March, Max Allegri’s squad, once again, has the chance to pad strengthen their hold on fourth place (and maybe even do a little more). Juve currently has a three-point lead over Atalanta (and suddenly Roma thanks to Saturday’s win over La Dea), and the very simple fact of the matter is that a win over Spezia will make things a whole lot easier to negotiate as we head into the stretch run of the season.

With the way Roma had been playing, Saturday night’s win over Atalanta was not exactly something that we could have easily predicted. But because of it, Juventus now has the chance to go up six points on both Atalanta — which still has a game in hand, mind you — and Roma. That’s the kind of thing that has to happen — especially when you’re playing a team like Spezia that has one of the worst defensive records in the league and is sitting just outside of the relegation zone.

Juve’s success in these games haven’t been as routine as we’ve hoped in recent years. They can’t afford to slip up with Roma opening up the door and giving Juve a route to going more than just a few points up on their closest competition for fourth place. Now all that’s left is to actually go out and do it.

MATCH INFO

When: Sunday, March 6, 2022.

Where: Allianz Stadium, Turin, 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 (4-3-3): Szczesny; Danilo, de Ligt, Rugani, Pellegrini; Locatelli, Arthur, Rabiot; Cuadrado, Vlahovic, Morata.

Juventus bench: Perin, Pinsoglio, Stramaccioni, Bernardeschi, Miretti, Kean, Aké, Soulé.

Spezia starting XI (4-3-3): Provedel; Ferrer, Erlic, Nikolaou, Reca; Maggiore, Agudelo, Bastoni; Gyasi, Manaj, Verde.

HOW TO WATCH

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

Streaming: 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.