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

No matter how long Juventus remains in the Europa League, there will be one very unique twist that will be ever-present. It’s that Thursday and Sunday grind, something that Juventus hasn’t had to experience in a decade because of the fact that the club has been a constant in the Champions League knockout rounds.

But this scheduling quirk is nothing new to any of us since we know Tuesdays and Wednesdays are reserved for the European competition in which Juve went crashing out of this past fall.

That means all of three days after another disappointing European result, Juve must get back on the horse and now try to avert further grumpy feelings in the first backend of said Thursday-Sunday schedule.

Juventus heads to Spezia for some Sunday evening football after entering the weekend in the top half of the Serie A table. While the reality of the situation tells us that qualifying for European football next season is still very much a long shot unless the current 15-point penalty is rescinded. But until that point, it was very much a case of just trying to take care of the business that is right in front of you — which, for Juventus, means trying to get as many points as possible no matter what the status of the points penalty might be.

And in terms of a landing spot and quality of opposition to have after a tough European result, playing a team just outside the relegation zone that has not won in over a month seems like a pretty solid situation.

But that’s on paper.

We know “on paper” advantages hasn’t always worked well for Juventus this season.

Since the middle of October — and there’s obviously a World Cup break to throw off these things now — Spezia has won just three times. They’ve lost four of their last five. They are all of two points outside of the relegation zone, with the possibility of dropping into the drop zone if Hellas Verona beats Roma on Sunday. All of this has played into why Spezia will enter Sunday night’s game against Juventus without a manager after sacking Luca Gotti earlier in the week.