Round 17: Juventus vs. Pisa match preview

Just like that, we’re down to the final 90 minutes of Juventus football for the 2025 calendar year. It’s been quite the eventful year — which is not news to anybody who has even casually followed the happenings surrounding this squad, who has coached it and who has been there to try and assemble a winning roster. But as 2025 comes to a close, there’s something that might be a different kind of feeling starting to grow at Continassa.

Dare we say it’s the feeling of … optimism?

Dare we say it’s the feeling of … confidence in the manager?

Dare we say it’s a team that … could be going on a little bit of a run?

As Juventus get set to head to Pisa for the final fixture of 2025, Luciano Spalletti and Co. have built what feels a decent amount of positive momentum after big wins over Bologna and then Roma. Those are two wins against teams in front of them in the Serie A standings that have gotten Juve right back into the mix in the race for the top four. With last Saturday’s win over Roma, Juventus are now all of one point behind the team they beat in their final home fixture of 2025. And if things fall in the right kind of way this coming weekend, then Juventus could very well finish the calendar year in 2025 as a much more favorable schedule arrives before some huge fixtures both domestically and in Europe toward the end of January.

But to get the chance to say that, Juve need to take care of business against a Pisa side that has just one win to their name this season.

Then again, the last time we saw Juventus face a team like that was right after the final international break of 2025, and we all know how that turned out when Juventus faced Fiorentina at the Franchi.

Unlike La Vioal, though, Pisa sitting in 19th place come the soon-to-be turn to the new year probably isn’t that much of surprise. They are going through what so many other newly-promoted sides have had to deal with when they come up to Serie A. It just comes at a time in which another club that jumped to Serie A, Sassuolo, are sitting comfortably mid-table as one of the biggest surprises of the 2025-26 season. But Pisa are far from that level, and if not for Fiorentina’s massive struggles this season they would be sitting at the bottom of the league table. It’s to the point where the speculation about just how much longer Alberto Gilardino — who took over for former Italian national team teammate Pippo Inzaghi after he got the club promoted and decided to head to Palermo — actually has on the job if this current run of form continues into the new year.

They’ve got the worst goal differential in the league. They’ve got the third-worst attack in Serie A, scoring just 12 goals in their first 16 games of the season. In their last five games since their only win of the season, they’ve allowed eight goals and only picked up two points. (Ironically, one of those two draws came against Sassuolo.)

In short, this is the definition of a game in which Juventus just need to take care of business against a provincial side this weekend. Plus, with the way the schedule is this weekend, Juve will be the only one of the teams in the top five playing on Saturday, so they’ll be able to sit back Sunday and Monday and potentially see those four teams in front of them drop points and have things become even more crowded.

Which is saying something considering the simple fact there’s only four points between Juventus in fifth and Inter Milan at the top of the table (and with a game in hand).

Regardless of what the standings look like, this is Spalletti’s chance to truly continue to build off the recent results and performances and go into the new year feeling pretty good about where this team is at. The win over Roma was the kind of result in which it left Spalletti saying the following afterward: “Winning while learning something new is a double leap in knowledge. It’s victories that give you confidence and teach you something.”

The confidence of this team certainly does appear to be growing — especially when you can imagine where it was at when Spalletti first showed up in late-October.

Now it’s all about taking it into 2026. A win over Pisa — and maybe even one by a few goals! — will certainly be able to carry things over into the new year and continue this push for a spot in the top four.

TEAM NEWS

• Spalletti did not hold a pre-match press conference on Friday so it’s still somewhat unsure where some players are at in terms of their availability for the trip to Pisa.
• That said, we do know this when it comes to Friday training at Continassa: Weston McKennie will be available after his visit to J Medical coming out of the win over Roma. The same is maybe not so set in stone when it comes to Francisco Conceição and Juan Cabal, with both players training separately ahead of departure to Tuscany.
• Teun Koopmeiners will return to the squad after serving a one-match ban due to yellow card accumulation during Juventus’ win over Roma this past weekend.
• That’s an important note because Daniele Rugani — who came on for the final half-hour of Juve’s win over Roma — will be out for at least a month due to a muscle injury in his right leg. Rugani’s agent has subsequently said that the Italian center back played through the pain in the final minutes against Roma.
• The other injuries are also no sort of breaking news, with Dusan Vlahovic and Federico Gatti both out until the new year (and beyond).
• Carlo Pinsoglio is expected to return to the squad after missing the last 2 1/2 months with a calf injury.

JUVENTUS PLAYER TO WATCH

As I logged on this morning to finish up this piece, I noticed that the predicted lineups were not expecting the player I wanted to go with here to actually be in the starting lineup against Pisa. So, because of that, we’re going purely off predicted lineup vibes, and that means the Plan B pick gets moved up a position.

The good thing is that the second-choice player this week is actually one in very good form.

And one that has a lot of people again clamoring for his future to be settled and a contract extension to be handed out after plenty of months (and years!) of speculation about where he stands no matter how he plays.

Yes, the predicted lineups don’t have Loïs Openda in the starting lineup. Instead, it could very well end up being Jonathan David up front against a team in which Juventus are much likely to have a ton of possession against, which could very well render some of the speed that Openda brings to the table rather limiting. But since we’ve talked plenty about David over the last month or so, then we’re going with the fellow member of CONCACAF pictured above.

Yes, we’re talking Weston McKennie, a player who is playing quite well as

The American midfielder-turned-wingback has been a strong performer of late under Spalletti, a manager who has clearly unlocked something in him that Igor Tudor wasn’t able to during the first couple of months of the season. And especially lately, McKennie has been a leading man of sorts despite the fact he’s out wide as a wingback again — which just so happens to be the same spot in which he thrived under Max Allegri two seasons ago.

The thing about McKennie is that this has become the latest act in a story at Juventus that we’re all well aware of at this point. There’s no need to rehash it, but it’s important to note that he is essentially playing for his next contract right now. That is a big deal, and especially for a player who has found a manager who can get the best out of him again and is giving him some continuity after so many months of just being moved around the field from week to week. No matter how versatile he is, that has to help him at least find some sort of comfort level.

And it’s clearly paying off.

As we head into the final days of 2025, McKennie is very much playing his best ball of the season. In his last four appearances (all starts), McKennie has a goal and two assists, and that most recent assist could very well have been a goal if not for a very good Mile Svilar save. This is what McKennie can do at his best — and I feel safe in saying we’re starting to see his best again under Spalletti.

That’s what Juventus need on the right these days considering the other options they’ve rolled out there haven’t gotten it done. Spalletti has found something that works in McKennie, and the Texan is delivering once again.

MATCH INFO

When: Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025.

Where: Stadio Romeo Anconetani, Pisa, 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: CBS Sports Network (United States); TNT Sports 2 (United Kingom); Sky Sports Uno, Sky Sport Calcio, Sky Sport 251 (Italy).

Online/Streaming: Paramount+, DAZN USA, Amazon Prime Video, fuboTV (United States); DAZN Canada; fuboTV Canada (Canada); DAZN UK (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 Bluesky. If you haven’t already, join the community on Black & White & Read All Over, and join in the discussion below.