Match date: 5 October 2014

The two top sides from Serie A faced off in what would be an a very poorly officiated match. Both teams came into the match unbeaten in five Serie A matches, but both also struggled in their midweek Champions League fixture.

Juventus set out in a 3-5-2 with Asamoah coming in for Patrice Evra at left wing back, while Vidal was left on the bench in favour of a returning Andrea Pirlo.

Rudi Garcia made a few changes to the side that beat Verona in their last league match, with Holebas coming in for Ashley Cole at left back, Gervinho for Ljajic, Iturbe for Destro, and Skorupski in for the injured De Sanctis.

Both Teams Sit

Neither team was willing to take too many chances when they were defending. Both sides allowed one another to cleanly have possession of the ball in their own half of the field and then began to put pressure on once the halfway line was crossed. There were of course times when the defending team would press a bit. One of Roma’s big pressing triggers was when the ball was played out to a Juventus wing back, but overall the pressing from the sides was nonexistent.

A lot of the time this meant that whichever team had the ball, could keep it for extended periods as they always had a pressure relief pass behind them with the centre backs relatively free. With that said, the centre backs saw a good amount of the ball. Usually Juventus always look to build through Andrea Pirlo, who is one the game’s greatest deep lying midfielders. His ability to dictate games is excellent and it was Totti’s job to stop him from doing so and the Roma captain did fairly well. Pirlo got on the ball, but not enough to truly control the game. Below, you can see a good example of Roma sitting back, allowing Juventus to play between their centre backs and Totti marking Pirlo, denying him the ball as much as possible.

While this kept Pirlo from having a greater impact on the match, it allowed Bonucci, who is a good passer of the ball, to have plenty of time to pick out passes. A lot of his passes were made in front of Roma’s organised defensive shape, but an excellent ball into the path of Marchisio saw the midfielder get a decent opportunity. Below, you can see the passing diagrams of Pirlo and Bonucci and how both struggled with playing balls into the final third because of Roma’s compactness.

Tevez and Totti

Both these players had good games compared to the overall state of the match and both scored their respective penalty kicks. They played in similar roles for their sides. Tevez was partnered with Llorente up top, but the Juventus number 10 was always looking to drop into the space between Roma’s midfield and back four rather than play off of Llorente’s take downs. He took on players in good areas and worked hard defensive to try to keep Keita from getting time on the ball, though the Roma midfielder was able to complete the highest number of passes in the match. The best part of Tevez’s game was his ability to get into those tight spaces to the sides of Keita, between the midfield and back four, and receive the ball on the half turn to play someone else in. Below, you can see where he received the ball and his willingness to take players on in those positions.

Totti did the same for Roma, but dropped deeper into midfield than Tevez did as he looked to help his side keep possession and build their attacks through midfield. The best movement Totti had was just drifting a bit into midfield, which would bring the centre backs with him and then leave the space for Gervinho and Iturbe to run into.

Going Forward

Much of Roma’s best play was not when they had good possession of the ball inside of Juventus’ half, but rather when they were able to play quick counter attacks and get Gervinho and Iturbe isolated in 1v1 situations against Careces and Chiellini. Gervinho, in particular was effective when given these opportunities. He was anonymous for much of the match, but his brightest moments came when he was given space to dribble at the Juventus back three. On Iturbe’s goal, Gervinho was able to engage two defenders which allowed Iturbe to make a good run behind the line and Gervinho played a great ball for the Argentine to finish. His next opportunity saw him beat Careces to the ball with pace and dribble at Bonucci only to shot over the bar. His third moment came in another 1v1 where he beat his defender and found Pjanic on the six yard line only for the Bosnian to hit the ball wide.

Juventus’ best opportunities came in the second half largely because Pogba began to position himself further up the field and when the ball went out wide to one of the Juventus wingbacks, Pogba would get into the box alongside Llorente, occupying both of the Roma centre backs. When Vidal came on, he too got into the box as often as he could and both were in the Roma penalty area (in offside positions) when Bonucci scored the winner.

Conclusion

Much of the game was tarnished by the amount of fouls that caused extended stoppages and the referee’s decision making. There was about a ten minute spell starting with the first penalty kick that all of one minute of actual football took place because of the amount of fouls and players crowding around a incompetent referee. All three penalties were questionable, with both of Juventus’ close to being outside of the area and a question mark on whether Lichtsteiner pushed Totti down or whether the Roma man pulled him.

Aside from this, the proper football parts of the match were good. Both teams allowed the opposition to have time on the ball and both sides created chances to win the match prior to Bonucci’s winner.