LEONARDO BONUCCI STRUCK at the death as Juventus claimed the bragging rights from a bad-tempered 3-2 win over Roma that saw three expulsions and at least one dubious penalty in Turin on Sunday.
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.
Garcia said midweek the top-of-the-table clash would be a “great advert” for Italian football. And there was no lack of drama at a packed-out Juventus stadium as Roma, despite their first defeat of the season, further underlined their status as the biggest challengers’ to Juve’s three-year grip on the Italian championship.
Juve midfield great Andrea Pirlo returned for his first match of the season following his recovery from injury, with Garcia notably preferring Greek defender Jose Holebas to Ashley Cole at left back.
After seeing an early chance expertly blocked midfielder Tevez scored the first of a brace of penalties just before the half hour.
The match turned in the 26th minute when Juve were awarded a freekick following Francesco Totti’s foul on Pirlo, whose subsequent free kick hit the arm of Maicon in the defensive wall.
Players from both sides immediately surrounded referee Gianluca Rocchi, who wavered before giving in to Juve’s demands for a penalty. Moments later, Tevez stepped up to beat Lukasz Skorupski to give the champions a 27th minute lead.
To rub salt into Roma wounds, Garcia was sent off for dissent after playing an imaginary violin although any suspicion of bias was soothed minutes later when Rocchi awarded Roma a spot-kick after Totti was brought down in the box by Stephan Lichtsteiner, despite being nowhere near the ball.
Totti stepped up to send Buffon the wrong way to level on 32 minutes.
The goals seemed to set in motion a series of dubious challenges, Tevez notably shoving Holebas off his body in anger after a mid-air collision with the Greek defender that prompted Mapou Yanga Mbiwa to intervene.
However Juventus Stadium was stunned into silence just before the interval when Gervinho was allowed space on the left to run into the area and lay off a sublime angled pass for Juan Iturbe to run in and slide the ball past Gianluigi Buffon.
Roma’s joy was short-lived, however. When Pogba tried to gallop into the Roma area on the stroke of half-time, he fell under a soft 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 Skorupski for the second time.
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.
A Tevez lay-off for Fernando Llorente looked threatening, but Manolas did well to block in timely fashion.
At the other end Juve backed off and Radja Nainggolan found Gervinho on the left. After a smart run inside, the Ivorian set up Pjanic, whose low shot trickled just wide of Buffon’s far post.
Roma injected some fresh legs when Iturbe made way for Alessandro Florenzi in the 66th minute and on 78 minutes the Italian combined well with Gervinho and Pjanic before the Ivorian was bundled out of play to the right of goal by Chiellini.
Pirlo made way for Vidal with 11 minutes remaining, 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 outstretched 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, practically both sets of players and forcing the expulsion of the players involved.
