Round 21: Juventus vs. AC Milan match preview
Today at 10:45 PM
Another big game arrives with something other than a draw — in a positive way — hopefully taking place.
For the first time in 2025, Juventus are set to play at the friendly confines of Allianz Stadium. The last time they played at their lovely home stadium in Turin, the result was like so many others that we've seen during the 2024-25 season so far.
In other words, it was a draw.
That Dec. 29 result against Fiorentina set quite the final tone to the calendar year. Unfortunately, it's the kind of tone that has carried right into the new year — and then some.
We sit here in the middle of Juventus' massive three-game domestic test where they will face some of the best Serie A has to offer within the span of less than two weeks. The first one, Tuesday night against Atalanta, saw Thiago Motta's squad record their 13th draw in 20 games so far this season. Now, as Juve play their first home game of 2025, the same AC Milan club that handed Juve their only loss against Italian opposition this season is about to roll into the Allianz looking to replicate the same kind of result that happened two weeks ago in Saudi Arabia at the Supercoppa. Not only does the latest Juve-Milan showdown come at a time in which everybody is wondering when the Bianconeri will actually will again, but also Saturday night's proceedings come at a time in which there's plenty of off-field anxiety having to do with who's both arriving and potentially leaving during the January transfer window.
Sounds like an interesting night is afoot, isn't it?
Well, who the heck knows.
What we do know is that Juventus have already faced Milan once since Sergio Conceição took over as manager. Sure, it was only a couple of days since Conceição Sr. took over for Paolo Fonseca, but it was also the kind of performance that we've seen a lot of from Juventus over the last couple of months. You know, the kind where they get the lead but aren't able to hold onto to it late in the game. Against Milan in the Supercoppa, it ended up in a loss, not a draw like so many other results over the past few weeks and months.
But now, this is the meeting with Milan that certainly counts for more.
This is the chance to either get the much-need respite to what has turned into a string of draws we haven't seen before in Serie A at this point of a season or see Milan pull even with Juventus in the standings on 34 points if they replicate the result we saw in Saudi Arabia.
Things are all ... uneasy right now when it comes to Juventus. You can feel it when the players talk about the draws stacking up, when Motta talks about the same things and most certainly amongst a fan base who expected more than what the team is currently providing.
Just as was the case in the Supercoppa, Juventus will be facing a Milan team that is far from full strength due to injuries. In theory, that would mean they are very much ripe for the taking considering the likes of Christian Pulisic, Alvaro Morata and multiple players in defense are back home in Milan due to injury. (An opposing team having a longer injury list than Juventus? This is wild, wild stuff!)
Milan's form since Conceição took over just a couple of days before New Year's Day has been far from a massive step forward in a post-Fonseca world. For as impressive as their two comeback wins at the Supercoppa were, there's also been a draw against 18th-place Cagliari and Tuesday's late rally against Como thrown in there as well.
At the very least, Juventus' performance against Atalanta going forward was better than what we had seen a good amount of the time since the draws started piling up. Maybe, just maybe, if Juventus can come close to replicating that, then Juve's first Serie A win since Dec. 22 might actually be obtainable.
If not, then it might just end up being more talk about draws and points dropped from winning positions. And we all know how much we've enjoyed that lately.
TEAM NEWS
- A positive kind of injury development: Dusan Vlahovic is back in the squad after missing the last couple of games with a minor muscle injury. However, he is not expected to be in the starting lineup after only returning to training on Thursday.
- Francisco Conceição hasn't had that kind of luck in terms of recovering in time to face his father's new club. Motta announced during his pre-match press conference that Conceição, who had to pull out of warmups due to a muscle injury, will miss his fourth straight game.
- The one striker Juventus were hoping to bring in prior to facing Milan, Paris Saint-Germain's Randal Kolo Muani, will not be part of the squad this weekend and is still waiting to be registered. According to multiple reports Friday, Juve are still confident the deal will get done and Kolo Muani will join the club on loan.
- The only other player who is at risk of missing the Milan showdown is backup goalkeeper Mattia Perin, who picked up a minor injury in training on Thursday, according to Motta.
- The other three injury absences are the long-termers: Gleison Bremer, Juan Cabal and Arek Milik.
- New signing Alberto Costa will be called up for selection, Motta said.
- The only Juventus player who is at risk of a suspension because of yellow cards is Nicolo Fagioli, who is very much not being tipped to be in the starting lineup against Milan.
JUVENTUS PLAYER TO WATCH
There's a lot of rumors swirling around Juventus transfers these days. That is very much a different kind of scenario from where things were 12 months ago. (As was Juventus' record, of course.)
A certain somebody is suddenly at the center of a lot of those rumors and speculation. Even with it, his manager has very much said that he's playing against Milan. So let's go ahead and chat about him, shall we?
So Andrea Cambiaso may or may not be taking the field at the Allianz Stadium for the last time this weekend. That is something I was not expecting to write a couple of days ago, but here we are, folks. That is what happens when Manchester City and their bags of cash come calling and potentially table an impossible to resist offer for one of your best players.
For all we know, Cambiaso won't leave in January and the temptation of a transfer to Man City can be quelled enough so that it won't happen until the summer. (Or maybe not at all after January knowing what kind of potential punishments are coming City's way.)
But right now, Cambiaso's future as a Juventus player seems very uncertain with more talks between Juventus and Manchester City likely to happen over the coming days, if not sooner.
During Friday's press conference, Motta said that Cambiaso will be in the starting lineup to face Milan. It's very much the line of thinking that Cambiaso is still a Juventus player, so they will play him and treat him as such. But that begs the obvious question of just where his head might be at knowing that there's so much speculation regarding his future. That's especially true for a player like Cambiaso who, will obviously extremely talented, has been quite prone to very crucial mistakes over the last couple of weeks.
That, of course, is on top of Cambiaso having to take pain-killer injections to be able to play through the sprained ankle that he suffered last month. (Ironically, the first game that Cambiaso missed because of the sprained ankle was against Manchester City.)
Many predicted lineups expect Cambiaso to start on the right in Juve's four-man backline. That likely means he's going to see plenty of Rafael Leao running right at him. We'll see just how locked in Cambiaso is — and likely incredibly quickly with who he will be tasked with trying to slow down on the right wing.
MATCH INFO
When: Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025.
Where: Allianz Stadium, Turin, Italy.
Official kickoff time: 6 p.m. in Italy and the Central European time zone, 5 p.m. in the United Kingdom, 12 p.m. Eastern time, 9 a.m. Pacific time.
HOW TO WATCH
Television: Fox Deportes (United States); TLN (Canada).
Online/Streaming:Paramount+, fuboTV, foxsports.com, Fox Sports app (United States); fuboTV Canada (Canada); OneFootball.com (United Kingdom); DAZN Italia, 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.
