STADIO OLIMPICO (Rome) – Juventus produced a stunning comeback by scoring three goals in seven second-half minutes to beat Roma 4-3 at the Stadio Olimpico on Sunday, while Wojciech Szczesny was the hero late on as he saved a penalty after Matthijs de Ligt was sent off for handball.
Massimiliano Allegri’s side have provided few thrills this season, but it soon became clear that their trip to Rome would be an exception when Tammy Abraham headed Roma in front and Paulo Dybala curled in a wonderful equaliser in a high-tempo opening 18 minutes.
Federico Chiesa limped off with an injury in a blow to the visitors, and things got worse for them after the break when Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s deflected strike and a sumptuous Lorenzo Pellegrini free-kick put Roma 3-1 up.
The tie looked over as a contest but the Bianconeri responded superbly, scoring twice in two minutes as Manuel Locatelli headed in and Dejan Kulusevski smashed home a rebound, which he had to wait to celebrate as VAR overturned the original offside decision.
Mattia De Sciglio then pounced on a poor Chris Smalling header into his own box and drilled home Juve’s fourth, but they almost undid their hard work when a VAR review showed De Ligt had blocked an Abraham shot with his arm and the defender was shown a second yellow.
Pellegrini stepped up to take the resulting penalty, but former Roma keeper Szczesny guessed the right way and blocked it, before the midfielder slipped as he missed the rebound.
The result leaves Juventus in fifth, three points behind Atalanta in fourth and six ahead of Roma in eighth.
