When Juventus were about to begin their first post-international break stretch of fixtures last month, it was arguably the biggest domestic matchup of the season looking them right in the face. The Derby d’Italia proved to be Juventus’ only win during a six-game stretch between the first international break and the second, one that has seen another important injury come to light even though it was involving somebody who wasn’t on national team duty.
The first fixture coming out of the October break
isn’t the grand, history-filled matchup that Juve-Inter almost always proves to be, but it sure is an important one knowing what lies ahead for Igor Tudor’s squad.
That’s not to say that Juve aren’t facing a good team on Sunday afternoon. No, no, no … they most certainly are, with Cesc Fabregas’ 2025-26 season at Como proving to be another sign of the lakeside club building something quite impressive considering the fact that they were just down in Serie B a few years ago. (They do have A TON of resources at their disposal, though, so there’s that.) And considering that Juventus has a club next up on the schedule that somebody like Fabregas knows quite well from his playing days lying in the distance all of three days later in the Champions League, starting this post-international break run of games on the right foot is of the utmost importance for Tudor and Juventus.
The catch is … can they?
Juventus will be playing the next month (at minimum) without their best defender, Gleison Bremer, after he was forced to undergo meniscus surgery on the same left knee in which he suffered a torn ACL injury 12 months ago.
They are short on options in the midfield, too.
The attack — the area of the field that saw the most change during the summer transfer window — has yet to fully click on a consistent basis outside of Kenan Yildiz. (We’ll talk more about that young man in a few minutes.)
So you think somebody like Nico Paz — who is basically Como’s version of Yildiz in terms of both talent and importance to the attack — isn’t licking his chops knowing that Bremer isn’t going to be back there in defense on Sunday? Let’s just go ahead and check out what he’s done through Como’s first six games this season …
Boy, that sure is quite the comfortable young Nico has when it comes to shot-creating actions. When you’re comfortably ahead of players like Yildiz or Matias Soulé, that tells you just how involved and productive you’ve been so far this season — and what clearly makes you the No. 1 threat to a shorthanded Juve backline.
No matter who Tudor ends up going with in defense, trying to slow down Paz and the rest of the Como attack — don’t forget that it also includes old buddy Alvaro Morata, who is mostly coming off the bench so far this season — who have surprisingly scored fewer goals (7) than Juve have (9) through the first six games.
Como have also had to cope with back-to-back draws in their last two games before the international break, meaning they will be quite motivated to get back to winning ways — especially at home — and try and jump back into the top third of the Serie A table.
Of course, that amount of draws doesn’t rival what we’ve seen from Juventus ever since that 4-3 win over Inter at the Allianz a little more than a month ago. Of Juve’s six games after the September international break, five of them were draws, the Inter win being the lone outlier. It’s been a sudden turn of events that has brought about some heat to what was already a tough task for Tudor to try and turn things around before things really start looking a lot like what ended up dooming the Thiago Motta era less than a calendar year after it got started.
Facing Como right out of the international break won’t get the same kind of hype that as Inter did a month ago. But, when you look at the importance of what the trip to the famous lakeside stadium will mean for Tudor and his squad both this weekend and over the next couple of weeks, it’s imperative to try and right this ship before it goes totally off course.
TEAM NEWS
- Bremer is out for at least 4-6 weeks following his meniscus surgery. We likely won’t see him until after the November international break at the earliest.
- An injury absence we weren’t expecting to see involves Edon Zhegrova not being called up for the trip to Como. But Tudor said that the Deadline Day signee won’t travel with the team despite playing for Kosovo during the international break. All we know about Zhegrova, according to Tudor, is that he “isn’t feeling well.”
- Also out injured: Fabio Miretti, Juan Cabal, Carlo Pinsoglio and, of course, Arek Milik.
- Tudor did say that Miretti will be back training with the group from Monday onward.
- Tudor said that Kenan Yildiz will not be rested against Como with Juventus’ trip to Real Madrid on Wednesday night in mind.
- How many training sessions did Tudor say his team at full strength had to prepare for Como? “Two.”
JUVENTUS PLAYER TO WATCH
Nico Paz has deservedly gotten a whole lot of attention for what he’s done so far this season, the kind of form that has everybody thinking about what he will look like in Real Madrid’s squad a year from now.
But what about the other young gem who will be on the field Sunday afternoon?
Yeah, let’s talk about Juventus’ young No. 10 who went into the international break with a couple of relatively subdued showings following a hectic stretch of fixtures over a six-game stretch.
Kenan Yildiz is coming off an international spell with Turkiye in which he scored in both of his country’s fixtures. Three goals in two games! And they were gorgeous goals at that — which, if you’ve followed anything Yildiz has done this season, pretty much falls right in line with everything else he’s done when he’s on the scoresheet.
So now he’s back in bianconero after a great international break. And you know what? Juventus need him to keep that kind of form going if they want any sort of chance of winning any o these big fixtures over the next couple of weeks.
That is just the current state of the situation at Juventus right now. It may sound like a big declaration, but without Bremer in the lineup for the next six weeks (or more), the likelihood of Juventus keeping clean sheets seem even less likely than they already were based on their defensive record over the last month. That means goals — goals are going to be needed. And, let’s face it, Yildiz feels like Juve’s best threat to score as Jonathan David goes through his struggles and Dusan Vlahovic remains a complete wild card depending on if he’s starting or coming off the bench.
Yildiz facing Nico Paz will be billed as a meeting of two great talents in the present and for the future. That s true. And what better way to show just how much a great international break can carry over back into club football than against the other half of that young gem matchup? Kenan, you know the assignment.
MATCH INFO
When: Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025.
Where: Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia, Como, Italy.
Official kickoff time: 12:30 p.m. local time in Italy and across Europe, 11:30 a.m. in the United Kingdom, 6:30 a.m. Eastern time, 5:30 a.m. Central time, 3:30 a.m. Pacific time.
HOW TO WATCH
Television: Fox Deportes (United States).
Online/Streaming: Paramount+, CBS Sports Golazo Network, DAZN USA, Amazon Prime Video, Fox One, Fox Sports app, foxsports.com (United States); DAZN Canada; fuboTV Canada; Amazon Prime Video; Fubo Sports Network 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.
