Juventus pulled off a seemingly impossible comeback in the second half to stun Roma at the Stadio Olimpico on Sunday evening.
After Tammy Abraham and Paulo Dybala had traded goals in the first half, Roma raced into a deserved 3-1 lead eight minutes into the second period thanks to strikes from Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Lorenzo Pellegrini, whose free-kick was special.
Juve were seemingly dead and buried, but a couple of changes sparked them into life. Substitute Alvaro Morata teed up Manuel Locatelli, now playing in a more advanced midfield position, to offer the Bianconeri a glimmer of hope. Within seven minutes of Locatelli’s strike, they were 4-3 ahead! It was a sensational turnaround from the visitors and the winner came from the unlikeliest of sources: Mattia De Sciglio.
Incredible drama in Rome! 🇮🇹
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) January 9, 2022
Roma were cruising to victory but Juventus strike three times in seven minutes to take the lead! ⚫️⚪️
José Mourinho must be LIVID! 👀 pic.twitter.com/JI2c6sqL1e
The drama didn’t finish there, however, as Matthijs de Ligt gave the perplexed hosts a chance to restore parity by handballing in the box. He was subsequently dismissed, but Wojciech Szczesny saved comfortably to deny Pellegrini from restoring parity from the spot. Juve then impressively held out with ten men to secure a memorable victory.
It was an all-time Calcio classic, and here are the Juventus player ratings from the most unexplainable game of football you’re ever likely to see.
Goalkeeper & Defenders
Wojciech Szczesny (GK) – 10/10 – TEK. TEK. TEK. Our hero. He conceded three times, but he deserves a 10/10 for his clutch penalty save to preserve Juve’s 4-3 advantage late on. That’s the second time he’s denied Roma from the spot this season.
Juan Cuadrado (RB) – 6/10 – Cuadrado kept Felix Afena-Gyan quiet on his first Serie A start in what was a pretty solid performance from the Colombian. He got lost amid all the drama.
Matthijs de Ligt (CB) – 5/10 – The Dutchman’s battle with Tammy was wonderful to watch. Two elite talents going at it for 80 or so minutes, what more could you want? The Roma striker was quite brilliant on Sunday evening, with his proficient work off one-touch often outwitting De Ligt. The Juve defender had his toughest outing in a while thanks to Abraham, and he was sent off late on after picking up a second yellow card for handball which resulted in a missed Roma penalty.
Daniele Rugani (CB) – 6/10 – Rugani was beaten by Abraham in the air for Roma’s opener but he certainly wasn’t aided by his side’s woeful zonal marking scheme from set-pieces. The Italian was struggled at times, but he made some crucial interventions in the closing stages.
Mattia De Sciglio (LB) – 8/10 – HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?! Why did De Sciglio find himself in that position? How did he have the composure to score? Unanswerable questions.