Game Time Thread: Juventus vs. Fiorentina

This weekend’s trip to the Artemio Franchi is very, very different than the last time Juventus made its way to Florence to face Vincenzo Italiano’s purple-clad squad.

That last trip, the final league fixture Juventus played in the 2021-22 season, had absolutely nothing on the line. Fourth place was wrapped up, pretty much all contract extensions were handed out or those about to see their contracts expire had been notified, and a disappointing season had reached its final note.

Not only does this season’s visit to Florence come at a very different point in the season, but during a time in which this Juventus squad is still very much searching for what exactly it can be.

We’re all of about 360 minutes into the 2022-23 season, and for the second straight weekend Juventus has a very big domestic fixture on the docket. This time, though, Juve’s playing away from home, with the Franchi set to be the definition of a cauldron-like atmosphere because the Old Lady is in town for the weekend.

What comes next during the subsequent 90 minutes?

Ah, that’s fun to try and guess!

(Or maybe with how up and down Juventus has been, it’s not all that fun at all. That’s part of the fun of such an open-ended question, right? Sometimes you’ll be wrong, sometimes you’re going to be right on the money.)

It’s time to see whether the Juventus from the season opener against Sassuolo and the first half against Roma or the one from the Sampdoria draw or, most recently, the win over Spezia is the one that shows up at the Franchi. One of those is totally fine with me, but the other one is a version of Juventus in which there will be a lot of issues — and not necessarily for Fiorentina based on how they played against Samp and Spezia.

So here’s to hoping Juve can find some of that Sassuolo or Roma game mojo. The good kind of mojo to put it simply. And if so, trying to force a Fiorentina side that is struggling to score goals to actually score goals could actually happen.

MATCH INFO

When: Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022.

Where: Stadio Artemio Franchi, Florence, Italy.

Official kickoff time: 3 p.m. local time in Italy and around Europe, 2 p.m. in the United Kingdom, 9 a.m. Eastern time, 6 a.m. Pacific time.

STARTING LINEUPS

Juventus starting XI (4-3-3): Perin; Cuadrado, Danilo, Bremer, Alex Sandro; Locatelli, Paredes, McKennie; Di Maria, Milik, Kostic.

Juventus bench: Pinsoglio, Garofani, De Sciglio, Gatti, Bonucci, Rugani, Miretti, Fagioli, Vlahović, Kean, Soulé.

Fiorentina starting XI (4-3-3): Terracciano; Dodo, Milenkovic, Igor, Biraghi; Maleh, Amrabat, Barak; Kouame, Jovic, Sottil.

HOW TO WATCH

Television: CBS Sports Network (United States).

Online/Streaming: Paramount+ (United States); fuboTV Canada (Canada); 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.