Juventus 2-0 Roma: 5 talking points as Bianconeri climb up to third in Serie A
A Cristiano Ronaldo strike and Roger Ibanez own goal were enough to give Juventus a 2-0 victory over AS Roma in the SerieA.
Andrea Pirlo named a vastly different side to the one that saw off Inter Milan in the Coppa Italia semifinal on Tuesday. Just four players retained their place in the starting line-up from that San Siro clash.
Cristiano Ronaldo gave the hosts the lead in the 13th minute. He showed great composure and technique to fire past Pau Lopez after he had been played in by Alvaro Morata.
The Portugal international had another chance soon after, but he saw his well-taken shot rattle the crossbar off a deflection by Roger Ibanez.
Ronaldo's goal proved to be the difference at the break, with Juventus heading into the dressing room with a narrow one goal lead.
The second half saw the visitors up the ante but they failed to make the pressure count before going two goals down.
Substitute Dejan Kulusevski embarked on a now-trademark run down the flank, before sending a pin-point cross into the box.
Cramped for space, Ibanez turned the ball into the back of his net with Cristiano Ronaldo breathing down his neck.
That goal took out the bite from Roma's game and Juventus held on for the win.
The victory takes them up to third on the Serie A table, five points behind table-toppers Inter Milan and with a game in hand.
Here are five talking points from the fixture.
#5 Juventus getting into top gear at the right time
Much was made of Juventus's inconsistent start to the season, with many writing them off in the title race.
However, this side have proved their mettle time and again in the last decade and their winning mentality has proven essential to their unprecedented dominance.
The Turin giants came into this game having defeated Inter Milan in the semifinal of the Coppa Italia away from home.
Their win over Roma means that Juventus have now won six games in all competitions on the bounce and it gives them added impetus entering the homerun stage of the campaign.
#4 Poor AS Roma fail to apply themselves in Turin
AS Roma came into this game in third place, one point above Juventus on the Serie A standing.
The last time these two sides met, they played out a four-goal thriller that saw the sides share the spoils in a 2-2 draw.
Given what was at stake in this fixture, similar fireworks were expected. But a low-key affair saw an experienced performance from Juventus fire them to glory.
Much of this owed to the underperformance of their visitors, as the capital outfit failed to get going in front of goal.
They managed just two shots on target across the 90 minutes with Wojciech SzczesnyΒ a relative spectator for most of the game.
This was especially disappointing, considering the quality of players available to Paulo Fonseca.
The result of this defeat means that the Giallorossi dropped down into 4th place, while Napoli could also overtake them if they pick up a win against Genoa in Saturday's late kickoff.