We have seen day after day tick away during the longest in-season international break and (hopefully) waited patiently for calcio to return to the weekend viewing schedule. Maybe after the first two weeks you were conditioned to turn your brain back on because previous breaks were over … but nope, there was still a week to go.
Fear not, though, amici.
Calcio my not be back in the same way that Fabio Capello deemed a few of years ago, but the international break that spanned through late-August and into the first week-plus of October, is now a thing of the past.
The catch is that we don’t truly know where things stand because of such a long amount of time in between games. Juventus’ opponents on Sunday night in Sardinia, Cagliari, have been one of the biggest surprises early this season. But we also don’t know how much a three-week break will have potentially taken the wind out of their sails and slowed down all of that early momentum that Fabio Pisacane had been building with his squad thus far. The same can be said about Luciano Spalletti and Juventus, of course, because of just how much time every team in Serie A has just had away from club football.
But this is what we do know: Entering the trip to Cagliari, Juventus are not the team that is ahead in the standings.
… wait, what?
Yes, really. A reminder that the Serie A standings, no matter how much or little you might take it into account after the first five fixtures of a new season, has Caglari ahead of Juventus. That is both because of Cagliari starting the season incredibly well as well as Juve doing some silly things in their opening handful of fixtures, most notably against Sassuolo and fumbling away some points in a 3-2 loss at the Mapei Stadium.
Cagliari has gone about their strong start to the season that has them sitting in fourth place as the games resume again in an interesting kind of way. Three of Cagliari’s four wins have been with a 1-0 final score. The other? A 2-1 victory over Atalanta. Yet, at the same time, they are surrendering the second-most amount of shots (20.4) so far this season, second only to Frosinone, another surprising provincial side. They’re also creating one of the lowest shot totals (10.8) this season, meaning they’re giving up a lot of shots and not creating much at all.
So how are they doing it?
Cagliari has only allowed two goals all season, which represents the fact that they are not seeing the vast majority of all of those shots they’re allowing — including a whopping 31 in a 1-0 loss to Inter Milan back in August — actually turn into opposing teams scoring. They’re massively out-performing their xG for allowed goals (8.74), and have seen Elia Caprile record one of the highest save totals through the first five games.
“Cagliari deliberately give you a bit of space, inviting you to play in their half, and they have players capable of turning the play around quickly, passing the ball well and neutralising any counterattacks,” Spalletti said during his pre-match press conference. “As in previous years, they manage to get the best out of certain players, and this year they’re doing so with Daniel Maldini. We’ll have to be very good, determined, alert and intense, because if you give them space, they know how to make the most of it.”
OK, so a team that surrenders a lot of shots but doesn’t allow a lot of goals could very well make for an interesting night out for Juventus, right? Considering, you know, how we’ve seen Luciano Spalletti’s team struggle in front of goal multiple times already this season.
That could very well be the ultimate test for Juventus against one of the biggest surprises in Serie A so far this season. Whether it’s Randal Kolo Muani hopefully carrying over the strong performance he had against Atalanta or Chico Conceição doing more good things than bad while Nico González essentially serves as a chaos agent up front, Juventus will have to prove they can be one of the few teams to actually crack the Cagliari defense this season.
And when you consider that this is the first fixture in a run of nine games in less than month — 29 days to be exact — then you have the full desire to start things off right rather than the alternative. I don’t need to say what that alternative actually is because we can all pretty much guess what it is and that involves seeing Juve players walking over to the traveling fans after the final whistle with disappointed looks on all of their faces.
Yeah, we don’t want that second part.
Do we need a reminder of what happened the last time these two teams played, too? Maybe … if you want it.
Either way, Spalletti says that his team on the right track as they get set to play their first game in three weeks. From afar, who really knows what kind of state they will be in because of such a long break and some players having to go on international duty while others were back in Turin simply taking the fields at Continassa and that’s about it.
Beating Cagliari won’t be the determining factor if this nine-game stretch will be a success or a failure, but it sure would be a nice start as Spalletti’s squad looks to back up what their manager said about them ahead of their return to the field this weekend.
TEAM NEWS
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We come out of an international break when things … went relatively OK and there aren’t many — if any — real injury concerns. Just some guys potentially getting a bit of a break because they played and/or traveled a lot from their respective home nations over the last couple of weeks. Makes sense!
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In short, nobody who was out on international duty has been added to the injury list — and that’s important to note when you remember just how snake bit this team has been so far this season.
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That means the list of injured is the usual bunch from much of this season: Kenan Yildiz, Manuel Locatelli, Khephren Thuram, Jérémie Boga and Jeff Ekhator. Also on the injury list is young midfielder Augusto Owusu, who picked up a minor muscle injury in training during the break.
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You will notice there’s one less name than we’ve had over the last few weeks, and that is because Andrea Cambiaso has returned to full training over the international break and will be available for selection, Spalletti confirmed at his pre-match press conference.
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So much so that Cambiaso is being tipped to start in place of Zeki Çelik against Cagliari simply because the Turkish fullback has played a lot of minutes so far this season and during the international break, so this could be a natural spot for him to get some rest ahead of the trip to Celta Vigo on Thursday.
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Also back in the fold is Juan Cabal, who is most definitely not being tipped for a starting spot in the same way that Cambiaso is for very obvious reasons.
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Lloyd Kelly could also be in line to get a start against Cagliari considering that Jhon Lucumí was one of the final Juventus players to return from international duty and his trip from Colombia was a very long one on top of that.
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Juventus will be without their new (and old) backup goalkeeper Neto due to him having to finish serving a suspension that he picked up in his final game with Botafogo. That means Carlo Pinsoglio will serve as the backup to Guglilemo Vicario against Cagliari.
JUVENTUS PLAYER TO WATCH
We know that one spot in Juventus’ midfield pivot is pretty much assured to go to the revitalized Brazilian who has played a very (pleasantly) surprising amount of minutes so far this season. However, with Locatelli out injured for the next few months, it seems as though that other spot is still very much up for the taking.
On Sunday, it appears we’re going to get to see another one of the potential options get his first crack from the start in Serie A to see just how well he can mesh with Douglas Luiz.
So what does this all mean for Pape Matar Sarr? Well let’s go ahead and discuss.
Spalletti was full of praise for Sarr during Saturday’s pre-match press conference. The quote in full is something that went a little something like this:
“Sarr is a cross between a defensive midfielder and an attacking midfielder. He has a short stride, but when he makes a run, he covers a lot of ground. His timing is spot on and, in terms of his playing style, he is most similar to (Weston) McKennie. He covers a lot of ground and could be one of those players who goes from being a substitute to a first-team regular.”
Going from substitute to starter is something that Juventus need out of one of their midfield options as we continue to sit through the early weeks of Locatelli being out injured. We know that Douglas Luiz will be there more often than not as long as he stays healthy — and thankfully he has! — but the other part of the double pivot that Spalletti is very much going to stick with because that’s his steeze is still up in the air.
Sarr has every chance to try and take it, and thus leaving Spurs fans with the feeling of “Where was this guy the last couple of years?!?!?!” like I saw a few saying following his performance against NEC Nijmegen in the Europa League opener last month.
Juventus could certainly use a midfielder who can cover a ton of ground in the way that Spalletti says Sarr can. They can use it both when it comes to runs into the opponents’ penalty area as well as for defensive cover. They can use somebody who levels up — and Sarr is still young enough where he can make that leap. (He’s a year younger than Thuram, by the way. That’s something to remember right there.)
Ultimately, though, Juventus just need somebody to take a hold of the second midfield pivot spot alongside Douglas Luiz. And it looks like Sarr’s first shot at that could come against Cagliari this weekend. No better time to start staking your claim to a starting role than the present, right?
MATCH INFO
When: Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026.
Where: Unipol Domus, Cagliari, Italy.
Official kickoff time: 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.
HOW TO WATCH
Television: Telemundo (United States); TLN (Canada), TNT Sports 1 (United Kingdom).
Online/Streaming:Paramount+, CBS Sports Golazo Network, Peacock, Telemundo Deportes En Vivo (United States); DAZN Canada; fuboTV Canada (Canada); DAZN UK, HBO Max (United Kingdom); DAZN 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 Bluesky. Black & White & Read All Over’s match threads from your phone with the new SB Nation app. Commenting and interacting with your communities is easier than ever before with the Game Chat feature. The app is available currently in the U.S. on iOS and Android devices.