Juventus retained their nine-point lead at the top of Serie A after holding on to a 1-1 draw, despite a spirited comeback from ten-man Roma 9.55pm GMT Well, that’s that. A spirited effort by ten-man Roma in the closing stages after some young blood was brought on for some old-timers, but it wasn’t quite enough. Juve retain a nine-point lead at the top of the table - the title was probably over before this game anyway, and given Juve have the edge in the head-to-head record too, it would take something fairly spectacular for them not to take the title from here.It’s a sobering thought that Juve drew with the second-best team in the division without Andrea Pirlo and Paul Pogba, the latter rested just because Max Allegri fancied it. 9.52pm GMT Peeeeeeeeeeeeep. 9.51pm GMT 90 mins + 2: Vidal is complaining about something. Not sure what. 9.49pm GMT 90 mins: Top trolling from Lichtsteiner here, as he goes down with ‘cramp’ in what’s been called a textbook Boubacar Barry move. He’s subbed off, with Simone Padoin taking his place. 9.48pm GMT 89 mins: Gervinho tries to dribble in from the left, but he’s eventually crowded out. Juve don’t do a very good job of clearing the thing and it eventually finds its way out to Holebas, but his cross is abysmal and another chance goes. 9.46pm GMT 87 mins: Oddly, despite having an extra man, Juventus look more defensively vulnerable here. Gervinho runs into some space and onto a long pass forwards, but despite the room Buffon dashes out and boots it away. 9.45pm GMT 86 mins: Gervinho makes tracks towards goal and feeds to Iturbe, but his left-footed effort is pulled and scuffed and deflected and Buffon runs across to kick it out for a throw. 9.43pm GMT 84 mins: Vidal gets the most needless booking of the game - and there’s plenty of competition - for chopping down Nainggolan after a free-kick had already been awarded against Juve. 9.42pm GMT 83 mins: A sub for Juve, as Morata goes off, replaced by youngster Kingsley Coman. Evra receives some treatment after a foul by Pereyra. 9.41pm GMT 82 mins: Nainggolan tries a shot from way out right along the floor, bodies strewn left and right from a series of challenges like it’s the opening scene from ‘Saving Private Ryan’, but while his effort is straight at Buffon, again the intent is good. 9.39pm GMT 80 mins: This is excellent now from Roma, who have been revitalised by the introduction of the more dynamic Iturbe and Nainggolan. The former breaks towards the box and tries a left-footed shot, but it’s scuffed badly wide. The intent is there, though, and that’s what’s important for Roma at this stage. 9.38pm GMT 79 mins: Nainggolan wastes little time in getting into the book, flying through Marchisio and ‘earning’ a yellow card. 9.38pm GMT 78 mins: Lovely free-kick is clipped over to the far post where Keita heads back across goal, and it goes in via Marchisio. A brief debate ensues about whether it should be the Roma man’s goal or an OG, but if Glenn Murray can have his Aaron Cresswell-aided effort at the weekend, then Keita can have that one. 9.36pm GMT And we’re level! 9.36pm GMT 77 mins: Iturbe dashes down the right after some neat play from the other two substitutes Nainggolan and Florenzi, and he flies to the turf after a challenge from Chiellini. The Italian defender protests his innocence, but he’s booked. 9.34pm GMT 75 mins: Ooof. Vidal absolutely barrels into Iturbe, and is lucky not to get a booking himself. Florenzi appeals at length to the ref’s better nature, but he is unmoved. 9.32pm GMT 73 mins: And here is Nainggolan, replacing De Rossi as ten-man Roma chase this one. 9.32pm GMT 72 mins: Buffon is finally called into action as Manolas heads towards goal, with the keeper shovelling the ball wide. 9.30pm GMT 71 mins: Change for Roma as Iturbe replaces Totti. Looks like Nainggolan is about to come on, too. 9.29pm GMT 70 mins: Another booking, this time for Marchisio who raked Pjanic with his studs. Gervinho lobbied hard for that yellow, and is satisfied with the result. 9.27pm GMT 68 mins: Juve scoring from a free-kick and their opponents having a man sent off isn’t going to do anything for those conspiracy theories. 9.25pm GMT 67 mins: Gervinho goes down and he’s not happy about it. Nothing given, though. 9.24pm GMT 65 mins: Meanwhile, Rudi Garcia makes a change to deal with the sending off, as Florenzi replaces Ljajic. 9.23pm GMT 64 mins: And from the free-kick conceded by Torosidis, Tevez beautifully curls a free-kick into the bottom corner to make him Serie A’s top scorer and perhaps win the title for Juventus. 9.22pm GMT Things happening! 9.21pm GMT 62 mins: Well, that felt inevitable. Vidal breaks towards the box and goes to ground, clipped by the Greek defender but it didn’t look terribly intentional. No matter, and he gets a second yellow card. 9.19pm GMT 60 mins: Another booking - Yanga-Mbwia this time, and that’s six for the game. 9.18pm GMT 59 mins: For lack of anything interesting to do in this game, how about you have a look at this clip which will make you feel bad about every mean thing you’ve ever said about Ian Wright. 9.16pm GMT 57 mins: The ref really is getting into his yellow card stride now - Pjanic gets a booking now for a foul on Pererya. 9.14pm GMT 55 mins: From the subsequent free-kick Ljajic fires the ball into the middle, Pjanic gets his head to it but Buffon gathers at the second attempt. He could quite easily have claimed it first-time, but he quite possibly fumbled it a little to keep everyone entertained. Everyone likes a juggling act, after all. Next: sword-swallowing. 9.12pm GMT 54 mins: Man, if it wasn’t for the bookings this game would be unwatchable. Morata is the latest to have his collar felt by the referee after hacking down Yanga-Mbwia. 9.12pm GMT 53 mins: Evra tries what I think was a pass through the middle looking for Tevez, but it turned out to be a drilled ball exactly in the middle of three or four players. Not good. 9.10pm GMT 52 mins: Now Lichtsteiner has a shot! Another shot! It goes wide too, but that’s two shots in two minutes. It’s all kicking off now. 9.09pm GMT 51 mins: Oh, there’s something. Pjanic gives the ball away and Juve counter at some pace, Vidal finds himself in some space just outside the box but his left-footed shot is pulled across goal and goes wide. 9.08pm GMT 50 mins: Nope, still nothing happening. What you up to? 9.06pm GMT 48 mins: Nothing of note has happened so far, apart from a foul throw by Totti. So nothing of note has happened so far. 9.04pm GMT 46 mins: The second half is GO! GO! GO! GO! 8.51pm GMT Half-time entertainment... 8.48pm GMT Peeeeeeeeeeeep. And that’s the break. It hasn’t been much good so far, which will obviously suit Juve just fine. De Sanctis isn’t happy about something as the players go off for their plastic cups of orange squash, but it’s not clear exactly what. Could’ve been on of his teammates. 8.47pm GMT 45 mins: Lichtsteiner crosses from the left, it’s deflected up in the air and Yanga-Mbwia plays about the most casual big hoof clear you’re likely to see. Worked, though. 8.45pm GMT 42 mins: Pererya yanks Holebas over and the stadium waits for the referee to award the free-kick, but no such award is forthcoming and play is invited to continue. Tevez goes into the space left by the prone Holebas and drives a shot across goal, but a half-block/deflection takes it wide. De Sanctis catches the resultant corner. 8.42pm GMT 41 mins: A booking for Evra, whose crime was to take down Torosidis with a lusty hack. A fair call, on balance. 8.41pm GMT 39 mins: This Roma policy of giving Holebas the ball on the left for him to boom in crosses would make slightly more sense if they actually had someone who could head the ball. He tries a slightly different approach this time, with a pass down the line, but it’s what you might call absolute trousers and dribbles behind for a goal-kick. 8.39pm GMT 37 mins: Holebas tries another curling cross from deep, but that one is too high, too deep and too far in front of the forwards. But other than that, excellent. 8.37pm GMT 35 mins: Yanga-Mbwia almost chucks his team into a massive vat of poo by playing a badly-underhit backpass to De Sanctis, but the keeper does well to get out and clear before Morata can take advantage. 8.36pm GMT 34 mins: Keita has another wrestle - rumours are that his hero as a child was Shawn ‘The Heartbreak Kid’ Michaels - this time with Morata on the left. Again, the Roma man wins the free-kick. 8.35pm GMT 33 mins: Morata recovers from that assault just in time to take a shot, but his left-footed effort was snatched at rather and it flashes across the face of goal, and wide. 8.34pm GMT 32 mins: De Rossi finally gets the booking he should’ve got in the opening 20 seconds, this one for chopping at Morata’s ankles like a council worker chopping down a dead elm. 8.33pm GMT 31 mins: Another cross from Holebas, this one a little more measured and delicate, but there’s nobody attacking it properly and Bonucci completes a training drill header clear. 8.31pm GMT 29 mins: Holebas causes a bit of panic in the Juve box by putting in a cross from deep, but the ball bounces off Keita’s stomach and back to Gigi Buffon before anything dangerous can be created. 8.30pm GMT 28 mins: Vaguely amusing moment as Evra prepares to take a throw, only realising at the last moment that it had actually been awarded to Roma, and Ljajic was taking it with another ball about five yards down the line. 8.28pm GMT 26 mins: Another close thing for Juve, as Evra streaks down the left like a man half his age, fizzing a cross at about belly-button height into the middle, but there was a little too much fizz on that and it eludes everyone. 8.26pm GMT 24 mins: Morata appears baffled as to why a free-kick was awarded against him. It’s because you booted Manolas up in the air, Alvaro. 8.24pm GMT 22 mins: Oooooof, sweet fancy Moses that was almost a comic own-goal. Pereyra gets down the right and measures a low cross into the area, looking for Morata at the back stick, but Manolas measures a careful finish towards his own goal, which goes about half a yard past the post. If that had gone in, you could’ve called it a ‘measured finish.’ 8.22pm GMT 20 mins: Keita and Lichtsteiner wrestle on halfway. They go down in an aggressive embrace, the ref guesses and gives Roma the free-kick. Take THAT, Juve conspiracy theorists. 8.21pm GMT 19 mins: The first booking of the night, and it’s very much been coming. Torosidis is the man who goes into the book, jumping in rather robustly on Bonucci. On the basis of the first 19 minutes, absolutely no way this ends 11 vs 11. 8.20pm GMT 17 mins: Ljajic skips into the box from the left and manages to keep the ball despite the close attention of a few defenders, but rather rudely none of his teammates decide to bother helping him out, and he’s dispossessed. Totti is then lucky to get away without a booking after a foul on Lichtsteiner, while replays suggest that a block by Evra a few moments ago may have been a handball. 8.17pm GMT 15 mins: Neither side really managing to build much yet. Lichtsteiner finds Pereyra down the right, but Mapou Yanga-Mbwia belts across to snuff that particular move. 8.15pm GMT 12 mins: Caceres dallies over a clearance rather, and his field of vision is filled with what probably looks like about 50 feet of De Rossi, and the mass of beard and spite inevitably blocks the thing, but only for a throw. 8.12pm GMT 10 mins: Some fancy footwork by Marchisio gets him out of a spot of bother just outside his own box, but other than that not much is currently happening. 8.10pm GMT 7 mins: Lichtsteiner dances down the right and cuts the ball back as he reaches the byline, but Holebas is there to tidy up. Which he doesn’t do terribly well, like if you trusted a goldfish with a dustpan and brush, merely shovelling the ball out to Evra around 25 yards out, who feeds Vidal on the edge of the box but his shot on the spin goes wide. 8.08pm GMT 5 mins: “You might want to mention that the referee tonight is Dinele Orsato,” points out JR in Illinois. “I expect him to be busy.” Indeed, JR. Meanwhile, Gervinho’s heavy touch stops a potential Roma move before it really starts, but you probably knew that anyway. 8.05pm GMT 3 mins: Free-kick to Juve out on the right that Claudio Marchisio is lining up, which he clips to the back stick looking for Patrice Evra, but he can’t get there and it’s cleared by Roma. 8.04pm GMT 2 mins: “I don’t want Totti to ever retire,” writes Ruth Purdue. “Things will never be the same.” Preach, Ruth, preach. 8.03pm GMT 1 mins: And we’re away, Juventus kicking off as the slight fog from the pre-match flares hangs over the pitch. Daniele de Rossi starts the game in the most Daniele de Rossi way you could possibly imagine, by going through the back of Arturo Vidal within the first 20 seconds. No booking, remarkably. 8.01pm GMT The teams are out, and the Roma anthem is ringing out loud and proud... 7.51pm GMT Good to see this secret is being kept...Bugger to being impartial @NickMiller79. I won't tell anyone you are rooting for us. 7.37pm GMT As a reminder, here’s what happened the last time these two teams met. It was spicy, to say the least. Listen out for the last goal, when the commentator’s life crumbles around his ears. 7.29pm GMT UPDATE: kick-off isn’t actually due until 20.00 GMT. Something to do with Parma, although I imagine that any problem in Serie A at the moment is blamed on Parma. Kit clash? Parma. Beer’s off? Parma. Syria? Parma. 7.16pm GMT De Sanctis; Torosidis, Manolas, Yanga-Mbiwa, Holebas; Pjanic, De Rossi, Keita; Gervinho, Totti, Ljajic. 6.45pm GMT PreambleIf life, as Al Pacino told us in Any Given Sunday, is a game of inches, then Italian football remains a game of centimetres. Gianluca Rocchi could have done with that ruler (or better yet, advanced satellite imagery) at Juventus Stadium this weekend, in a match that would be utterly defined by his refereeing decisions. In the first half alone he awarded three penalties. All of them would provoke debate. The first arrived when a free kick struck Maicon’s arm on the edge of the Roma area. Rocchi initially signalled for another free kick, but changed his mind after Juventus’s players protested. The defender had been part of a wall formed inside the box, a fact confirmed to the referee as they pointed out the line of “magic spray” he had used to discourage Roma’s players from encroaching. 6.45pm GMT Buona sera. Nick will be here shortly. Until then, why not brush up on your calcio history with Guardian Sport Network’s series of Serie A alternative club guides? Here’s The Gentleman Ultra on the birth of AS Roma:In the 1920s, no fewer than eight football clubs represented Italy’s capital. This superfluity meant they were unable to compete with the dominant clubs of northern Italy. AS Roma was formed on 22 July 1927, from a merger of three clubs: Alba, Fortitudo and Roman.The only major club to resist this merger was Lazio and despite the fact the Aquile had been founded 27 years earlier, the Romanisti immediately considered their team as the peoples’ club. Why? Then, as now, there were more Roma fans, having absorbed supporters from three different clubs. Continue reading...
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