All clashed in this four-city lalapalooza. When the dust settled, only one emerged victorious. Did Juventus once more defend their title or did Roma upset the odds? Did the Ligurian duo sneak a win or instead implode under the weight of their tenuous entente cordiale? The tale of this Sunday’s Serie A battle royale to follow.
Juventus entered the ring with the confidence of the champions. Roma leered across to them, anticipating a chance to pounce on any potential slip-up. Genoa and Sampdoria had nothing to lose… expect perhaps for the humiliation of being beaten worse than the other. The 90-minuted time limit was set. The referee signaled for the ringing of the bell. The battle was on.
Roma let forth a three-minute barrage of flying blows starting on 14 minutes, as Radja Nainggolan, Gervinho, Miralem Pjanic and Alessandro Florenzi’s strikes were all blocked, parried and finally evaded by Genoa. Roma’s sudden aggressiveness was not all due to the earlier sucker-punch from Genoa however. Only two minutes prior, Juventus had already floored their opponents.
Juventus has since drawn Sampdoria into close-combat, going on the offensive with a series of headbutts. The Trapping Headbutts tactic finally paid off on 12 minutes as Patrice Evra flew into the air to nod in the first decisive blow. Sampdoria was shellshocked as Genoa gleefully snickered at the sight of their hated rivals on the canvas. Evra had struggled since his arrival in Turin, but on the day rose to the occasion to score an important opening goal in a big match
The battle raged on with Roma and Juventus dominating their respective opponents. Roma finally landed a decisive blow on 40 minutes with a Leg Sweep from Nainggolan. The bell for the end of the first round sounded, with both Juventus and Roma in the lead. Juventus still looked confident, and Roma still looked to press on. Much of the issues of Roma this year have been their inability to take advantage of Juventus slipping up. They showed no intention on repeating the mistake on Sunday however.
Roma pressed on and so did Juventus. In the end, Juventus were unable to regain the ascendancy. As for Roma, Genoa gave them one last scare with a close-range headbutt from Tomas Rincon on 93 minutes. The referee flagged it off however… Roma: saved by the bell.
* All moves mentioned represent the official naming as per professional World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)
** No players were harmed in the writing of this feature… well, except for Arturo Vidal
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWX7y1VETyU[/youtube]
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