Game Time Thread: Juventus vs. Sassuolo

The month of April is full of big fixture after big fixture. But when it comes to tonight’s matchup against Sassuolo at the Mapei Stadium, it’s more about the game in between the big games on the European stage.

The importance of this isn’t to be denied, though.

With the big day regarding the 15-point penalty just a few short days away, the last thing Juventus needs to see happen is a second consecutive weekend with a loss or points being dropped. While Sassuolo is certainly not at the level of Lazio, there’s always going to be a little bit of a bugaboo about heading to Reggio-Emilia because of what has happened at the Mapei Stadium in previous years. No matter what kind of form Sassuolo enters the home meeting with Juventus on, things have rarely been straightforward. Or simple. Or sometimes anything that approaches logic.

What will it be this time?

Well, that’s what we’re about to find out.

Juve’s experienced a little bit of everything since things have started back up again after the first international break of 2023. They’ve experienced the highs of the win over Sporting just a few days ago. They’ve seen the lows of the loss to Lazio and seeing their lead against Inter in the Coppa Italia semifinals vanish within the last couple of minutes. There’s been good moments and there’s been bad — which is something you’ve basically come to expect from Juventus during Max Allegri’s second tenure as manager in Turin.

So here’s to seeing what’s next. Hopefully it’s more positive than it is negative because no matter what the verdict on the points penalty ends up being the last thing Juve need to see happen is a late-season swoon during such an important stretch of games.

MATCH INFO

When: Sunday, April 16, 2023.

Where: Mapei Stadium, Reggio-Emilia, 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 (3-5-2): Perin; Gatti, Bremer, Danilo; Barbieri, Fagioli, Paredes, Rabiot, Kostic; Milik, Vlahovic.

Juventus bench: Szczęsny, Pinsoglio, Bonucci, Rugani, Locatelli, Pogba, Cuadrado, Miretti, Chiesa, Di Maria, Soulé, Iling-Junior.

Sassuolo starting XI (4-3-3): Consigli; Toljan, Erlic, Ruan Tressoldi, Rogerio; Frattesi, Maxime Lopez, Matheus Henrique; Bajrami, Pinamonti, Laurienté.

HOW TO WATCH

Television: TLN (Canada); BT Sport 3 (United Kingdom).

Online/Streaming: Paramount+ (United States); fuboTV Canada (Canada); BTSport.com, BT Sport 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.