JUVENTUS 3 ROMA 2
Juventus - Tevez (pen) 27', (pen) 45', Bonucci 86'
Roma - Totti (pen) 32', Iturbe 44'
Red cards - Morata 88' (Juventus); Garcia, Manolas (Roma) 89'
Man of the match - Carlos Tevez (Juventus)
Leonardo Bonucci struck a late winner as Juventus claimed the bragging rights from an ill-tempered 3-2 win over Roma on Sunday night that saw three red cards.
Roma coach Rudi Garcia was sent off in the first half, while Juve striker Alvaro Morata and Roma defender Konstantinos Manolas saw red in the closing minutes after the match’s final, angry exchange.
Both sides had gone into the match with 100 per cent records, but only Juventus go into the international break with theirs intact as they moved three points clear of Roma with six victories out of six.
It was the champions who opened the scoring after 26 minutes with Roma defender Maicon controversially penalised after being adjudged to have handled Andrea Pirlo’s free kick just inside the penalty area, with Carlos Tevez converting the penalty. Garcia was dismissed from the touchline for dissent as he protested the decision to referee Gianluca Rocchi, but his side reacted well to the setback as they were quickly level.
They got a penalty of their own six minutes later as, in an off-the-ball incident, Francesco Totti was brought down in the box by Stephan Lichtsteiner.
Totti stepped up to send Gianluigi Buffon, the Juventus goalkeeper, the wrong way with the spot-kick.
It got worse for Juventus a minute before the interval as Gervinho was allowed space on the left to run into the area and lay off an angled pass for Juan Iturbe to run in and slide the ball past Buffon.
Roma’s joy was short-lived, however. When Paul Pogba tried to gallop into the Roma area in first-half stoppage time, he fell under a challenge from Bosnian midfielder Miralem Pjanic.
Despite television pictures showing the challenge to be outside the area, Rocchi pointed to the penalty spot and Tevez stepped up to beat Lukasz Skorupski for the second time from the spot.
Juve resumed where they had left off, following the break, and Skorupski had to rush out to smother as Pogba stumbled his way towards the six-yard box.
Roma looked as if they would hold out for a share of the spoils as they began to frustrate the home side, but Juve’s salvation came when Roma’s defence failed to deal with a corner which fell to Bonucci on the edge of the area.
The Italy defender smacked a volley through a crowded defence and past the diving Skorupski to give Juve an 86th-minute lead, although at least two Juventus players looked offside.
The match ended on an ugly note when Manolas was victim to a tough sliding tackle by Morata, prompting the intervention of Allegri and most of the other players. That led to expulsion, by Rocchi, of the three players first involved in the incident.
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