Roma beat Juventus 1-0 at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome on Tuesday night in their Coppa Italia quarter-final clash.
The only goal of the game was scored by Gervinho who finished off a fantastic team movement.
After a cagey first five minutes new Roma signing Radja Nainggolan tried his luck from distance, only for it to go wide of Marco Storari’s post.
Roma began to up their game, and after a quick pass and move the ball found Alessandro Florenzi whose shot went wide.
Then came a major talking point when Sebastian Giovinco was brought down by Mehdi Benatia with the latter appearing to be the last defender, however referee Paolo Tagliavento opted to book the Moroccan international.
With 20 minutes of the first half gone it was clear that the Bianconeri were aiming to slow down the tempo in an attempt to combat the Giallorossi’s enthusiasm.
The Giallorossi continued their attacking onslaught however, this time Daniele De Rossi played the ball out wide to Francesco Totti whose cross was cleared by Giorgio Chiellini before it could reach Florenzi.
Roma continued to threaten Juve, this time Vasilis Torisidis’ cross went across the face of goal untouched.
Rudi Garcia’s men continued to press high up the pitch, this time Totti’s volley from long range went inches wide of the post.
Juventus could have conceded when Gervinho played the ball out wide to Nainggolan who laid the ball off to Totti, but the latter’s shot took a deflection.
In the opening minutes of the second half Juventus thought they were 1-0 up when Fedrico Peluso headed past Morgan De Sanctis but the linesman had his flag up as the initial cross appeared to have crossed the byline.
Roma responded quickly, but this time Florenzi’s looping header went wide of the far post.
The Giallorossi continued to knock on the door, Totti’s swerving cross was cleared in the last minute by Leonardo Bonucci before it could reach Gervinho.
Roma could’ve been caught on the break when Sebastian Giovinco and Fabio Quagliarella’s presence was outnumbering Roma who only had Benatia back defending, but before Giovinco’s attempted through ball reached Quagliarella, Kevin Strootman had made a last-gasp interception.
Peluso had a great chance to put Juve ahead when he beat De Sanctis to a cross but the former Atalanta man had his eyes shut and failed to direct the ball.
Roma finally broke the deadlock when substitute Miralem Pjanic’s made a bolstering run from midfield, waited for Strootman who was coming in from the left and the Netherlands international’s cross found Gervinho who took one step to beat Bonucci to the ball and finish to make it 1-0.
Gervinho could’ve scored another goal minutes later but his shot was saved by Storari.
Pjanic almost topped an instrumental contribution to the game, but his stinging drive went wide of the post.
With this win, Roma are through to the semi-finals and will face either Lazio or Napoli in the semi-finals.
