AC Milan vs. Juventus match preview: Time, TV schedule, and how to watch the Serie A

Juve head to back to the San Siro for the second time within the last month, this time to face an AC Milan squad that has been both very good and very bad in recent games.

Juve head to back to the San Siro for the second time within the last month, this time to face an AC Milan squad that has been both very good and very bad in recent games.

That first trip to Milan this season, the 4-4 Derby d’Italia draw with reigning champions Inter Milan, is one of the most exciting results Juventus have been a part of in years.

The second? Well, it certain will be quite the task for this shorthanded Juventus squad to try and replicate against an AC Milan side that has been all over the map during the first three months of the Paulo Fonseca era.

Saturday night’s showdown at the San Siro sees Juventus — one of the six squads that is separated by all of two points atop the Serie A table — face a Milan squad that is very much wanting to get back to being part of that six-group (or maybe even make it seven). Juve went into the international break with back-to-back wins over Udinese and more recently Torino in the Derby della Mole to weeks ago. Now, as they come out of the break, not only is the roster very much not at full strength or anything close to it, but Thiago Motta is looking at an eight-game stretch before Christmas arrives that will see his team compete in Serie A, the Champions League and (a little earlier than usual) the Coppa Italia.

This return from the November break, though, it’s quite the interesting one because of the historic rivalry that Milan-Juve very much is. But also because of the fact that Milan has been all over the map in recent weeks and have become all the more difficult to peg.

They still show signs of being the team that basically had folks wanting to Fonseca head out just a few short weeks into his tenure in Milan. Then they go and beat the reigning European champions, Real Madrid, in the Champions League … at the Santiago Bernabéu.

Basically, and I can’t remind you all of this enough, we’ll just go and describe Milan in the same way that Sam did a couple of weeks ago: they’re “a bipolar team that doesn’t decide until kickoff whether they’ll be fantastic or suck.”

That certainly something that will give Motta plenty of challenges in preparing for such a big fixture at the same stadium in which his team allowed four goals just a few weeks back. But it’s also pretty easy to understand that Milan, for all of their issues earlier this season, are able to turn things up and get big results like their wins over Real Madrid or Inter. They’re a talented team with a whole lot of firepower up front even though they very much don’t have the same kind of presence that Olivier Giroud provided the last couple of years. (I love you, Alvaro Morata, but it’s not like you’re having the best of seasons since arriving in Milan.)

Speaking of teams who might not be without a presence at the top of their attack. Or any No. 9 called up for the trip to Milan.

Better yet, speaking of a team that will be without a third of its roster …

Yeah, it would be Motta’s Juventus, who are currently in the midst of their biggest roster crunch in quite a few months. As a result, Motta has just 18 players available to him on the matchday squad. Considering three of those are goalkeepers, Juventus’ bench will be as short as we’ve seen this season.

That means not only will the starting lineup see somebody who is not a natural No. 9 playing in that spot — and we will discuss that more in a moment — but it’s not like Motta will be flush in terms of options off the bench, either. That’s what happens when you have so many players out injured and you’re left with only a couple of defenders, a couple of midfielders and a winger available off the bench come the second half Saturday night in Milan.

But for at least one weekend — and hopefully not much longer after that — this is what Motta will have to deal with and try to overcome. He knows it, saying “We’ll all have to up our game” because of the injury situation entering such a big matchup against Milan.

There’s plenty to try and overcome as a big stretch to close out the 2024 calendar year is set to get underway this weekend. But, if anything, we can use the first visit of the season to the San Siro just a few weeks ago as a sign that this team is capable of pulling something crazy off just when it looks like the odds are completely stacked against them.

We’ve seen some crazy results from Motta’s squad already this season — and getting a result with so many important players out injured would certainly be up there, too.