The Juventus Stadium was the scene of one of the most anticipated matches in Serie A, with José Mourinho’s Roma visiting Allegri’s men. The hosts took to the field after a surprising goalless draw at Sampdoria and an overall record of one win and one draw in the competition.
The summer was very busy in Turin with the arrivals of Denis Zakaria, Gleison Bremer, Paul Pogba, Angel Di Maria, Filip Kostic and the most recent, Arkadiusz Milik. In terms of departures, the highlight is clear: Paulo Dybala who returned tonight to face the team of his heart, now in the service of Roma.
José Mourinho maintained the energy that led him to the 2021-22 Conference League victory and made the Roman offices move with the arrivals of Georginio Wijnaldum, Nemanja Matic, Mile Svilar and Paulo Dybala. It also had the departures of Henrik Mkhitaryan, who joined Inter Milan, and Sergio Oliveira, who is now part of Galatasaray’s ranks.
At the entrance to the duel, the Romans occupied the 3rd position of the championship with a perfect form of two consecutive victories. The last to arrive after Smalling’s isolated goal won the three points against Cremonese.
The meeting began and we didn’t have time to breathe. In the first minute of the duel, Matic knocked Cuadrado down at the entrance of Roma’s area. In the conversion Vlahovic gives a lesson on how to hit free-kicks and puts the ball in the back of the net with a free-kick that Rui Patrício could only follow with his eyes.
Roma were moving up the field, but they couldn’t connect the offensive game and get the ball to Abraham, something that Juventus used to take advantage of to start fast counterattacks through the center of the field and find their offensive trident that constantly tested Rui Patrício.
Mourinho’s nightmare seemed to worsen in the 26th minute when Locatelli executed a powerful shot from outside the area to secure the 2-0 lead at Juventus Stadium with a pass from Cuadrado. After being called by the VAR manager, Irrati disallows the Italian’s goal due to a hand on the ball by Vlahovic at the beginning of the play.
Juventus controlled the events of the duel despite a slight difference in possession and managed to stay out of danger. Roma remained unanswered and the score was maintained until half-time.
In the second half, Juventus slowed down, but maintained the principles, exploring the space in the opposing midfield and using the lines to try to request Vlahovic inside the area.
Roma continued to struggle to link the different stages of their construction and played only in their own midfield, waiting for an opportunity to finally bring danger to Szczesny’s goal. In the 69th minute, Roma’s patience was finally rewarded when Dybala responded to Zalewski’s corner with an acrobatic pass that went straight to Tammy Abraham’s head, who deflected it to equalize at the Juventus Stadium.
The pace increased with the passage of time and Juventus applied more and more pressure in the last third of the field, however, Vlahovic lost the first-half scorer, something that Rui Patrício was grateful for.
Roma were still waiting for a counterattack that would give them another opportunity to surprise Allegri’s men. Something that never happened, with the duel ending in a 1-1 draw after 94 minutes of football at the Juventus Stadium.
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