Game Time Thread: Juventus vs. Atalanta

As Atalanta has become better and better over the last five or six years, the trips to Bergamo have only become tougher and tougher.

There was a time, back before Juventus’ Serie A-record Scudetto streak, in which the Bianconeri dominated the head-to-head matchups when facing Atalanta in Bergamo. But, over the last half-decade, that has not been the case.

They haven’t exactly been full of disaster results-wise. But it’s not as commanding as things used to be before Gian Piero Gasperini came around and turned Atalanta into a team that outperforms expectations and competes to get into the Champions League most years.

What does this season’s trip to the Gewiss Stadium have in store?

Ah, what fun there hopefully will be as Juventus and Atalanta face off in a top-six battle during Serie A’s Sunday lunchtime kickoff. Juve enters in third place. Atalanta enters in sixth place and all of five points away from cracking into the top four. Just like we’ve seen the last two weeks, Juventus has the chance to jump over Lazio — which lost to AC Milan on Saturday — and into second place with a win. That’s the goal of this day.

Can they actually do it, though?

Atalanta enters this afternoon’s game playing some of their best ball of the season, rebounding over the last few weeks from some of the hiccups they had earlier in the calendar year. Now that they’re back on track, they’re putting even more pressure on the teams in front of them in the race for the top four, making it a five-team battle for the three remaining spots left to qualify for the Champions League.

A win in Bergamo would be incredibly crucial for Juventus solidifying their spot in the top four, putting more distance between themselves and the two Milan clubs in fourth and fifth, respectively. Whether they can make that happen is going to be quite the test of what Max Allegri’s squad is made out of knowing that there’s also a Europa League semifinal lying in the distance just four days from now.

MATCH INFO

When: Sunday, May 7, 2023.

Where: Gewiss Stadium, Bergamo, Italy.

Official kickoff time: 12:30 p.m. local time in Italy and around Europe, 11:30 a.m. in the United Kingdom, 6:30 a.m. Eastern time, 3:30 a.m. Pacific time.

STARTING LINEUPS

Juventus starting XI (3-5-2): Szczesny; Danilo, Rugani, Alex Sandro; Cuadrado, Fagioli, Locatelli, Rabiot, Iling-Junior; Di Maria; Milik.

Juventus bench: Pinsoglio, Perin, Bremer, Gatti, Bonucci, Barbieri, Pogba, Kostić, Miretti, Chiesa, Vlahović, Kean, Soulé.

Atalanta starting XI (3-4-2-1): Sportiello; Toloi, Djimsiti, Scalvini; Zappacosta, De Roon, Ederson, Maehle; Pasalic, Koopmeiners; Duvan Zapata.

HOW TO WATCH

Television: TLN (Canada); BT Sport 2 (United Kingdom); Sky Sport Uno, Sky Sport 251, Sky Sport Calcio, Sky Sport 4K (Italy).

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.