As much as the looming Champions League tie against Galatasaray is something that has been on our radar for the last couple of weeks, the same can’t be said about the second meeting of the 2025-26 season against Inter Milan. That is simply because the Derby d’Italia is something you have circled on your calendar for months, and based on how the first matchup went, the second one was always going to be an important measuring stick for both sides of Italy’s biggest rivalry.
Of course, a lot has happened
since that mid-September fixture that saw a seven-goal thriller go the way of Juventus.
That win proved to be one of the last ones that Igor Tudor recorded as Juventus manager before being fired all of five weeks later. Yes, the same Tudor who is about to become an interim manager for the second straight season, this time at Tottenham Hotspur with a few Juventus players of the past. As Juventus went through a managerial change and the subsequent evolutionary process that comes with it, Inter have only gone on to establish themselves as the Scudetto favorites — something that makes absolutely nobody who is a regular BWRAO reader actually wanted to see happen.
So now, five months after that first meeting that ended with Vasilije Adžić sending the Allianz Stadium into an absolute frenzy with his hammer of a game-winning goal, Juventus and Inter meet again, this time for a Valentine’s Day showdown at the stadium that just hosted the Opening Ceremony for the Winter Olympics.
Juventus are certainly an improved team under Luciano Spalletti heading into Saturday night’s matchup with the Serie A leaders. Inter are maybe even more of a case of a team finding serious form over the last couple of months and have been able to build an eight-point advantage over city rivals AC Milan entering Matchday 25. (That was cut to five points with Milan’s victory over Pisa on Luka Modric’s late game-winning goal because that’s just what a world-class player at age 40 is capable of sometimes.)
Both teams are better than they were the first time the Derby d’Italia was on the schedule.
But the question is: Can the current version of Juventus, one that is coming off a loss to Atalanta in the Coppa Italia and a frustrating draw with Lazio last weekend, get the better of the current version of Cristian Chivu’s Inter?
We know how the last couple of outings for Juventus have been more about what they haven’t done despite being far from a side that has played poorly. What about Inter? What have they done recently? Well, let’s take a look …
- Inter have won 11 of their last 12 games in Serie A.
- Inter have kept a clean sheet in five of their last seven games in Serie A.
- In six of their last eight games in Serie A, Inter have been able to build a lead heading into halftime.
- In their last three Serie A victories, Inter have scored a combined total of 13 goals and allowed all of one.
That is a team on form. No matter what they’ve done in Europe — and, just like Juventus, they have a Champions League play-off round matchup to think of in a few days, too — they’re absolutely the most in-form team in Serie A these days and there’s no real alternate contender to try and convince you otherwise.
Case in point, here is how the table looks since Spalletti took over at Juventus:
- Inter: 40 points
- Milan: 35 points
- Juventus: 31 points
Based simply on results from the past 180 or so minutes of football last week, Juventus are in need of a major bounce back to get back on track. With their draw to Lazio and Roma’s win over Cagliari 24 hours later, Juventus now have company on 46 points entering the weekend. Considering Roma play a desperate Napoli team, there’s a chance for a little bit of help if Juventus were to get the win at San Siro on Saturday night.
But that involves Juventus winning — which against such an in-form like Inter is going to even more complicated of a possibility as heading to Milan usually is to begin with. Then again, Juve have won the last two head-to-head matchups against Inter and will be going for a third this weekend. Three is a trend — and that is something that we can most certainly support if it continues.
TEAM NEWS
- In an interesting twist that could be the case for the foreseeable future, Spalletti did not hold a pre-match press conference, with the club reportedly insisting on the Tuscan manager focusing on the game(s) ahead rather than having to deal with multiple media obligations ahead of Saturday’s Derby d’Italia. So, if you were hoping to get squad updates in classic Spalletti fashion, you’re out of luck.
- Instead of Spalletti holding a pre-match press conference, Juventus had captain Manuel Locatelli take to the mic and talk with the media to preview Saturday’s showdown with Inter. As you can probably guess, it’s a little different kind of press conference with Locatelli as compared to a manager like Spalletti.
- When it comes to squad news, we do know that Khephren Thuram is suddenly a doubt to face Inter after picking up a bone bruise in training on Friday. He will be re-evaluated on Saturday morning prior to the squad’s departure for Milan.
- If Thuram is to miss Saturday’s derby against his brother’s team, it will likely be Teun Koopmeiners stepping in and starting alongside Locatelli.
- The other two injury absences are much more of a sure thing, with Dusan Vlahovic and Arek Milik (of course) both definitely out. Vlahovic is, however, starting to work his way back to full fitness at Continassa and could be available in early March, according to previous reports.
- Other than the worries about Thuram’s fitness, the only real lineup decision that Spalletti looks to have is if he will stick with his 4-2-3-1 formation or if he will switch to a three-man backline to mirror Inter’s 3-5-2. If he does go to a three-man backline, that likely means Weston McKennie starts ahead of Francisco Conceição as one of the two attacking midfielders behind Jonathan David.
- Just as was the case last weekend against Lazio, both Locatelli and Weston McKennie — two very important players for Spalletti these days! — are one yellow card away from having to serve a one-game suspension.
JUVENTUS PLAYER TO WATCH
As much as there’s suddenly a doubt about one of Juventus’ most important midfielders and the understandable doubts about the player who would likely come into the starting lineup to replace him, there is still a very big thing to address when it comes to the Bianconeri’s defense.
It’s the simple fact that Juve’s best defender has not been playing as such the last few times out.
Not exactly what you want to be hearing when two of the best strikers in Italy are going to be lining up across from you, is it? (No, not at all.) So let’s just go ahead and discuss.
In Juventus’ loss to Atalanta and draw to Lazio, a certain Gleison Bremer hasn’t exactly been all that impressive. That in of itself is notable because Bremer and his broad shoulders are usually incredibly impressive — and that’s not just me trying to work in the fact that he is an incredibly handsome man. He’s very good at his job. Unfortunately, that hasn’t exactly been the case lately, and that is something that will need to change for the better if Juventus want a chance to claim a second straight win over their most-hated rival.
But if Bremer’s not at his usual level, then it could be a long night.
We know that Juventus’ defense is very much a different unit when Bremer is his usual self. When he isn’t, though, that’s when we’ve seen them look a whole lot like they did last season after his season-ending knee injury. We don’t know what has caused Bremer to struggle of lately officially, but considering he has played a heavy amount of minutes since making his comeback in December from his meniscus surgery, it’s pretty easy to connect the dots — especially when you see how compact the schedule was in January and now into February.
The hope, of course, is that having six days in between Juventus’ draw with Lazio and the trip to the San Siro to face Inter is the thing that Bremer needed to rest up and hopefully completely dispose of those frustrating showings against Atalanta and Lazio. The man needs his rest — and especially so when you consider that he’s barely had much time to rest ever since the start of the new year.
No matter what, though, it’s pretty easy to figure out that if Bremer is not at his best then Juve’s chances of beating Inter at San Siro becomes just that much more of a tougher task. If he is the Bremer we know he can be, well then that just seems to change things for the better while other parts of the lineup remain question marks.
MATCH INFO
When: Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026.
Where: Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, Milan, 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: TLN (Canada); TNT Sports 3, TNT Sports 7 (United Kingdom); Sky Sport Uno, Sky Sport Calcio, Sky Sport 251 (Italy).
Online/Streaming: Paramount+, Amazon Prime USA, DAZN USA, fuboTV (United States); DAZN Canada; fuboTV Canada (Canada); DAZN UK (United Kingdom); DAZN Italy, Sky Go Italia, NOW TV (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.
