AS Roma 1-1 Juventus
Scorers – Tevez 64 (J), Keita 77 (R)
Serie A – Week 25 [Mondauy, 2nd March – 19:45 GMT] – Stadio Olimpico
Carlos Tevez scored a beautiful free kick but 10-man Roma equalised late on through Seydou Keita as the Scudetto showdown ended in a 1-1 draw.
Juventus had a 9 point lead heading into the game, knowing that victory in Rome would all but guarantee them a fourth successive scudetto while Roma were yet to win a league game at the Stadio Olimpico in 2015.
Arturo Vidal was a late injury doubt but made the starting XI while Paul Pogba was only fit enough for the bench due to a thigh problem. Andrea Pirlo, Romulo, Kwadwo Asamoah, Stefano Sturaro and Luca Marrone were all out injured for the Bianconeri while Seydou Doumbia, Victor Ibarbo, Douglas Maicon, Kevin Strootman and Leandro Castan missed out for the hosts.
The game got off to a scrappy start as Daniele De Rossi came close to being booked after just 17 seconds for a late challenge on Vidal.
Kostas Manolas almost scored an own goal when intercepting Roberto Pereyra’s roll across for the unmarked Alvaro Morata who only needed to tap in at the back post. Carlos Tevez almost capitalised on a wayward back-pass from Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, but thankfully for Roma, Morgan De Sanctis managed to hoof it clear. Tevez looked the mostly likely to score for the visitors and came close yet again after Roberto Pereyra rode three tackles, but his angled drive was deflected off target.
As the game restarted an Adem Ljajic error sparked a speedy counter-attack but Vidal’s daisy-cutter shaved the far post going wide. Moments later it was Stephan Lichtsteiner who blasted wide, but the game turned on it’s head as Roma went down to 10 men. Vasilis Torosidis was already on a yellow-card when he clipped Vidal’s heel just outside the box.
Tevez stepped up to take the free-kick and fired it home into the near top corner with a Pirlo-esque finish, leaving Morgan De Sanctis firmlyooted to the spot.
Juve looked to capitalise on their man advantage and Pereyra burst into the box, hitting the side-netting, while Gigi Buffon made his first save of the match on 71 minutes, getting down to palm a Manolas header round the upright.
Roma continued to press and got an unexpected equaliser through Seydou Keita, the Malian midfielder latching onto to a Alessandro Florenzi curled free kick to head past Marchisio.
Statistics:
Man of the Match: Carlos Tevez
Flop of the Match: Martin Caceres
Fouls: 16
Corners: 5
Pass Accuracy: 77%
Shots on Target: 1
Total Shots: 10
Ball Possession: 42%
Formation: 3-5-2
Formation:
Lineups:
Roma: De Sanctis; Torosidis, Manolas, Yanga-Mbiwa, Holebas; Pjanic, De Rossi (Nainggolan 73), Keita; Gervinho, Totti (Iturbe 71), Ljajic (Florenzi 65)
Juventus: Buffon; Caceres, Bonucci, Chiellini; Lichtsteiner (Padoin 89), Vidal, Marchisio, Pereyra, Evra; Morata (Coman 83), TevezRef: OrsatoSent off: Torosidis 62 (R)
Poll:
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juve should have crushed roma…we need to rotate this squad get players more hungry so we will stop giving teams chances to come back in the game…..yes they are human too but on too many occasions we are not converting our chances and dominating..including the games in champions league
I don’t think our poor finishing is due to a lack of hunger. That seemed to be Pereyra’s problem at udinese too while both he and Morata are still young and should improve since they train with champions everyday. Pogba, as great as he is from distance, needs to work on his finishing in front of the keeper as he should have a few more goals this campaign. Tevez is doing wonderfully as he already bagged 20 goals in all comps. Vidal just hasn’t been up to his standards all year. Pretty impressive that despite the amount of goals that are left on the field, we are still +9 in the league and won our first leg vs BVB in CL. That said if we seriously want to make a push in Europe then it needs to change and fast. No wasted opportunities