Game Time Thread: Juventus vs. Atalanta

Today is the first day of October. It just so happens that Juventus are about to play what is easily the second biggest game of the season, which just so happens to be coming all of two weeks after their first big game of the season.

That was Lazio. This is Atalanta. That was at the Allianz Stadium. This is at the Gewiss Stadium — a place where, while Juve won in Bergamo last season, has been a place that has been increasingly difficult to win at as Atalanta’s rise from Cinderella story to genuine European contender has happened over the better part of the past decade. Small sample size, sure, but Juventus’ form entering the trip to Bergamo has not exactly been great since the big win over Lazio, with the soul-crushing loss to Sassuolo followed up by a corto muso special over Lecce midweek.

So now we get to see if Juve can turn things back up to where they were against Lazio — which may or may not result in good things against an Atalanta side that feeds off the opponent’s mistakes — or if Max Allegri tries to grind things out once again in hopes of getting three points.

With no Dusan Vlahovic or Arek Milik to start up front, it’s hard to say which way Allegri will go with this. Moise Kean probably doesn’t have 90 minutes in his legs, which could open the door for some late-game Kenan Yildiz minutes if things go right. (Or if Juve need some sort of spark off the bench.) We know that Kean is a striker who plays best on the counter, so that could be the sign right there of what’s to come as we wait to see who partners with Federico Chiesa.

No matter what, though, Juve getting a big win over Atalanta two weeks after beating Lazio would be a pretty nice thing to see take place as we officially hit October.

MATCH INFO

When: Sunday, Oct. 1, 2023.

Where: Gewiss Stadium, Bergamo, Italy.

Official kickoff time: 6 p.m. Italy and the Central European time zone, 5 p.m. in the United Kingdom, 12 p.m. Eastern time, 9 a.m. Pacific time.

STARTING LINEUPS

Juventus starting XI (3-5-2): Szczesny; Gatti, Bremer, Danilo; McKennie, Fagioli, Locatelli, Rabiot, Cambiaso; Chiesa, Kean.

Juventus bench: Pinsoglio, Perin, Huijsen, Rugani, Kostić, Miretti, Weah, Nicolussi Caviglia, Yildiz, Iling-Junior, Mancini.

Atalanta starting XI (3-4-2-1): Musso; Toloi, Djimsiti, Scalvini; Zappacosta, De Roon, Ederson, Ruggeri; Koopmeiners, De Ketelaere; Lookman.

HOW TO WATCH

Television: TLN (Canada); TNT Sports 1 (United Kingdom).

Online/Streaming: Paramount+, Fox Soccer Plus (United States); fuboTV Canada (Canada); discovery+, discovery+ app (United Kingdom); 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.