Game Time Thread: Juventus vs. Cremonese

When it comes to Serie A’s two teams involved in the Champions League semifinal, we’ve seen two very different kinds of results in their game that’s in between the two-legged tie that won’t have them traveling outside of Milan city limits.

So what about the two Italian teams in the Europa League semifinals?

One is currently playing a rather dull game as I type this out over in Bologna. The other one, the one we root for every weekend, is about to get their turn against a team that is fighting for its Serie A life.

Juventus will take to the field at the Allianz Stadium in their brand new home kit that was released just a couple of short days ago. The goal for this game is simple — don’t let anything stupid happen against 19th-place Cremonese, a team that didn’t win its first league game of the season until the final day of February. If Juve does avoid the stupidity that comes with dropping points to a team currently in the relegation zone, they will take back sole possession of second place in the Serie A table after Inter’s dominant win over Sassuolo 24 hours earlier.

It’s that simple ... on paper, at least.

That’s not always very simple when it comes to Juventus on the field. Throw in a team that is desperate to stay in Serie A and there could be those makings of trap game no matter how much Max Allegri says that Juventus’ eyes are solely focused on Cremonese.

So now we get to see if Juventus can avoid any sort of Europa League hangover and pick up three points against the kind of side they should pick up three points against virtually every single time they play against one another. Because the last thing we want to be talking about in a few hours or a few days is how Juve dropped points to a team that, up until a couple of months ago, was in consideration for one of the worst Serie A sides in recent history.

MATCH INFO

When: Sunday, May 14, 2023.

Where: Allianz Stadium, Turin, 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 (3-5-1-1): Perin; Gatti, Bremer, Danilo; Cuadrado, Fagioli, Paredes, Rabiot, Chiesa; Pogba; Vlahovic.

Juventus bench: Szczesny, Pinsoglio, Alex Sandro, Rugani, Barbieri, Locatelli, Kostić, Miretti, Milik, Kean, Di Maria, Iling-Junior.

Cremonese starting XI (3-5-2): Carnesecchi; Vasquez, Lochoshvili, Chiriches, Ferrari, Quagliata; Benassi, Meitè, Galdames; Okereke, Afena-Gyan

HOW TO WATCH

Television: TLN (Canada); BT Sport 1 (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.