Game Time Thread: Juventus vs. Fiorentina

For some, the emotions from Monday night’s home finale in which we said farewell to two of Juventus’ best players over the last decade are still lingering. It’s the kind of night we don’t see often for obvious reasons, but also the kind of thing that very much makes Juventus special — the raw emotion, the love of the shirt, the bond between captain(s) and the fans.

This night, five days later, is the final hurrah for a season that is one most of us would like to forget — and not in a good way like the vibes we got earlier in the week.

Tonight, Juventus’ 2021-22 season will come to an end against an opponent in Fiorentina that we’ve seen a lot of over the last few months — which is especially ironic knowing who the big January singing was, where he signed from and the manner in which everything went down in the final days of the winter transfer window. Other than trying to send the likes of Giorgio Chiellini and Paulo Dybala (and Alvaro Morata?) (and Federico Bernardeschi?) out on a good note — you know, like what didn’t happen against Lazio — there really isn’t much of anything to play for. You can’t say that about the team Juventus will be lining up against, but for Max Allegri’s squad there’s definitely visions of beaches and vacations sneaking into some thoughts with very little at stake this weekend.

Maybe Juventus will be able to do what they didn’t do against Lazio and actually end this season on a high note.

Maybe they will give Chiellini one last win as captain and send him (and Dybala and whoever else is going to be playing in their final game with Juventus) on a high note.

Maybe, just maybe, Fiorentina fans won’t hurl insults toward Dusan Vlahovic and actually focus more on the game at hand.

(OK, who am I kidding? The last one is definitely going to be Fiorentina fans saying a bunch of things that can’t be replicated in this corner of the internet toward Vlahovic.)

So here’s to Juventus trying to win one last one before Chiellini, Dybala and the rest say farewell once and for all. Here’s to hoping that if Juventus gets a 2-0 lead this time around they actually hold onto it ... unlike previous matches that have happened within the last week.

MATCH INFO

When: Saturday, May 21, 2022.

Where: Stadio Artemio Franchi, Florence, Italy.

Official kickoff time: 8:45 p.m. local time in Italy and around 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 (3-5-2): Perin; De Ligt, Bonucci, Chiellini; Bernardeschi, Locatelli, Miretti, Rabiot, Alex Sandro; Dybala, Kean.

Juventus bench: Szczesny, Pinsoglio, Cuadrado, Pellegrini, Rugani, McKennie, Vlahovic, Morata, Aké, Iling-Junior.

Fiorentina starting XI (4-3-3): Terracciano; Venuti, Milenkovic, Igor, Biraghi; Bonaventura, Amrabat, Duncan; Nico Gonzalez, Piatek, Saponara.

HOW TO WATCH

Television: BT Sport 1 (United Kingdom); Sky Sport Uno, Sky Sport 252, Sky Sport Calcio, Sky Sport 4K (Italy).

Streaming: Paramount+ (United States); BTSport.com, BT Sport app (United Kingdom); DAZN, SKY Go Italia, 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.