Wojciech Szczesny was the hero for Juventus as he saved Jordan Veretout’s penalty, awarded under controversial circumstances, en route to a 1-0 win over Roma.
Moise Kean earned the credit for the Bianconeri’s winning goal in the first half as Rodrigo Bentancur’s header deflected off his forehead and in.
Tammy Abraham thought he had equalised, turning a loose ball into the back of the net after Szczesny brought Henrikh Mkhitaryan down in the box, but the whistle had already gone to award Roma a spot-kick, which Veretout saw the Juventus goalkeeper parry aside.
The result sees Massimiliano Allegri’s side move up to seventh in the Serie A table, just one point behind Roma, who remain fourth.
Roma started the brighter of the two sides, Gianluca Mancini testing Szczesny with an early headed effort, but went behind in the 16th minute as the hosts scored with their first attempt of the game, Bentancur heading the ball against Kean and in following Mattia De Sciglio’s deep cross from the left.
The visitors were left frustrated as the referee blew his whistle to award them a penalty – confirmed after a VAR review – for Szczesny’s foul on Mkhitaryan just moments before Abraham found the net, with Veretout’s subsequent spot-kick saved by the Poland international.
Shortly after the restart, Federico Bernardeschi’s spectacular bicycle kick was spilled into the path of Kean by Rui Patricio, but the striker blazed the loose ball over the bar from inside the six-yard box.
A second VAR penalty check was conducted when Lorenzo Pellegrini went down in the box as he and Giorgio Chiellini swiped at a loose ball, but this time Jose Mourinho’s men were denied a spot-kick and were unable to find an equaliser, slumping to their third defeat of the season.
What does it mean? Juventus make it four Serie A wins in a row
Allegri’s men started the league campaign poorly, failing to win any of their opening four league matches, but have found form and their win over Roma is their fourth successive Serie A victory, the first time they have managed such a run since July 2020.
That number rises to five when including their Champions League fixtures, having triumphed 1-0 over Chelsea at the end of September.
Italian core inspires Juventus victory
Allegri’s Juventus starting line-up contained seven Italian players, the most in a Serie A match since May 2015 against Inter.
Two of those seven were directly involved in what turned out to be the winning goal, De Sciglio sending the cross in that was deflected in off Kean’s head.
Veretout misses first Roma penalty
Midfielder Veretout had scored each of his 13 penalties across all competitions for Roma, but saw his 100 per cent success rate from the spot come to an end as Szczesny dived the right way to keep his low effort out.
What’s next?
Juventus travel to Russia to face Zenit in the Champions League next, while Roma take a trip to Norway to play Bodo/Glimt in the Europa Conference League.
