Juventus and AC Milan head into Sunday night\u2019s showdown at the Allianz Stadium likely thinking the same kind of thing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
After opening the 2026-27 season with wins over two provincial sides, the first big test of the new campaign is going to be lining up right across from them. And while one team has a brand new manager, the other one has a team that is potentially suited much more to the kind of ball he wants to play after a busy summer window.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Either way, two of the biggest spenders in Serie A during the summer transfer window will now be opponents in the first game since the mercato came to a close in Italy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The first Big Match<\/em> of the season sees the new-look Milan side under former Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim face a very short-handed Juventus as Luciano Spalletti looks to make it three straight wins to begin the 2026-27 campaign. It\u2019s the same deal for Milan after beating Torino and Milan, with Amorim\u2019s arrival and performance through the first two games of the season having folks thinking that he\u2019s got them on the rise after a season of Max Allegri that resulted in missing out on Champions League qualification.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Hey, you know what club also did that last season?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n OK, let\u2019s not dwell on the past even though this is technically a matchup of the two Serie A clubs who will be playing in the Europa League league phase a few days from now. (Or, more specifically, in like a week and a half from now.) Or maybe, just for the hell of it, we should look at what these two clubs have done in their last five meetings in Serie A:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n OK, so that\u2019s not exactly what you would call dominance. There are no losses there, but there\u2019s also not a whole lot of wins \u2014 and, as we know, it\u2019s not like Milan have been all that impressive these last few years as they\u2019ve had four different managers ever since the end of the 2023-24 season when Stefano Pioli left the club.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But the hope is that Amorim, regardless of what happened at his last place of employment, is the one that gets things going better again at Milanello.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n While they do have very different approaches in terms of up-tempo styles, Amorim did have this going for him the minute he stepped off the plane in Milan as he took over Allegri\u2019s squad: they both use three at the back, and that is something that has helped this transition to Ruben Ball. (Don\u2019t think that name is gonna stick, but let\u2019s just go ahead with it.) Amorim\u2019s implementation of how he\u2019s gotten Milan to press has certainly been a major change compared to how Allegri set things up and had his team trying to grind out result after result in a classic corto muso kind of style that he has now taken to Naples.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Again, though, just like Juventus, this is the first big test of the early work he\u2019s doing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I get that Juve are going to be very short-handed in this game. There\u2019s no Kenan Yildiz to do Kenan Yildiz things. There\u2019s no Khephren Thuram and Weston McKennie to bring energy to the midfield. Those are three very important pieces to the good things that Spalletti usually wants to try and bring to a game.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n That\u2019s not an excuse, though. Spalletti will still have a capable starting lineup on his hands even with all of those players on the sidelines due to injury. He didn\u2019t have a lot of those same players last weekend against Parma and he was still able to make second-half changes that turned the game in Juve\u2019s favor in a major way to make it two straight wins to begin the season.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This is a step up, though. We\u2019re still learning about Amirom\u2019s Milan, and maybe that\u2019s part of the mystery about them going into this game. You only have a handful of friendlies and the first two Serie A fixtures to go off of right now, and that isn\u2019t a whole lot \u2014 especially now that the transfer window is closed and rosters are basically set.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Either way, it\u2019s the first big test for both Juventus and Milan on Sunday night.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n And if Juventus can get a positive result, injury absences and all, then it\u2019s hopefully a big thing that Spalletti can build on as this team that has plenty additions of its own works to find its own identity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n For all of the players that Juventus brought in during the summer transfer window, it\u2019s not like one of the most problematic position groups of the past few years \u2014 the midfield \u2014 got a whole lot of attention. Instead, Juve is relying on Spalletti to get a couple of players to try and get back their old form of yesteryear and improve the midfield.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n While we will have to wait for one of those midfielders to actually play for Juventus, the other one has played a prominent role in both the preseason and now into the start of the new season as the games count for real.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n And when you\u2019re playing against a midfield that has Luka Modric still pulling the strings, just what your midfield does to try and counter that is quite important \u2014 and that\u2019s probably putting it lightly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n So far, Douglas Luiz has been good in his first two starts back at Juventus. He hasn\u2019t been great, but he hasn\u2019t been the player who was completely MIA when Cristiano Giuntoli first brought him to Turin two years ago. Some of that may well just be me thinking that it\u2019s nice he\u2019s actually available again compared to how things were during his first months as a Juve player, so forgive me if that \u201cyour best ability is availability\u201d clich\u00e9 is running through my head at the moment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But still, he\u2019s playing, he\u2019s in the starting lineup and he\u2019s showing a few signs that Spalletti is onto something when it comes to reworking the 28-year-old Brazilian back into the squad after a season on loan in the Premier League with Nottingham Forest and then Aston Villa.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Now, I feel like it\u2019s safe to say that Amorim will not employ the same kind of low block on a consistent basis that Parma did last weekend, thus resulting in Douglas Luiz not having to be one of the few players needed to actually unlock such a defense-first opponent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Against Milan, though, you feel like Douglas Luiz will have to do a little bit of everything simply because Juventus will have to both beat the Amorim press but also try and slow down an attack that has looked dangerous. You know, be a complete midfielder as compared to what he was the last time he was on the roster when Juventus played against Milan. (Shocker, it was not actually a scoreless draw that time.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Am I convinced that a double pivot of Douglas Luiz and Manuel Locatelli can work on a long-term basis this season? No, the sample size is still so small that we need much more of the eye test to make a final verdict. (Unless you\u2019re into knee-jerk reactions, that is.) He\u2019s not the midfielder that Thuram is, but he can certainly get forward and make runs into the opponents\u2019 penalty area like he\u2019s done under Spalletti already.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n And if he does, then it will come in handy quite a bit for a short-handed Juventus on Sunday night.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When: <\/strong>Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Where:<\/strong> Allianz Stadium, Turin, Italy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Official kickoff time:<\/strong> 8:45 p.m. local time in Italy and across Europe, 7:45 p.m. in the United Kingdom, 2:45 p.m. Eastern time, 1:45 p.m. Central time, 11:45 a.m. Pacific time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Television:<\/strong> Telemundo (United States); TLN (Canada), TNT Sports 1 (United Kingdom).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Online\/Streaming:<\/strong> Paramount+<\/strong><\/a>, CBS Sports Golazo Network, Peacock, Telemundo Deportes En Vivo (United States); DAZN Canada; fuboTV Canada (Canada); DAZN UK (United Kingdom); DAZN Italia (Italy).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Other live viewing options can be found here<\/strong><\/a>, and as always, you can also follow along with us live and all the stupid things we say on Bluesky<\/strong><\/a>. If you haven\u2019t already, join the community<\/strong><\/a> on Black & White & Read All Over, and join in the discussion below.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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