Roma miss chance to go top, Juventus down Milan

There were three second-half penalties at Bologna as Roma missed the chance to top the table in a contest heavily affected by rain and the state of the playing surface.

Roma miss chance to go top, Juventus down Milan

(Reuters)





Mattia Destro came back to haunt his former club with an 87th minute equaliser from the penalty spot for the hosts after substitute Vasilis Torosidis, duped by the run of the ball on the wet pitch, brought down Emanuele Giaccherini.

The draw takes Roma up to second, level on 27 points with leaders Fiorentina and third-placed Inter Milan, who play Empoli and Frosinone respectively on Sunday.

“There was little football to see tonight, how could there be in these conditions?” Roma coach Rudi Garcia told Mediaset Premium. “It was possible to stop the game and the referee should not have gone ahead. It wasn’t football, it was water polo with feet.

“The only positive from today is that there weren’t any injuries. I can’t talk about football, it was a parody of football.”

Bologna took the lead after 14 minutes when Adam Masina fired past Wojciech Szczesny, but the visitors fought back through two penalties.

Miralem Pjanic equalised in the 52nd minute, squeezing the ball beneath Antonio Mirante, after Anthony Mounier handled Alessandro Florenzi's cross, and Edin Dzeko gave Roma the lead 20 minutes later when Juan Iturbe was felled by Luca Rossettini.

Bologna, who have improved significantly since Roberto Donadoni replaced Delio Rossi as manager in October, move up to 15th place on 13 points.

Juventus made it six straight Serie A victories over Milan thanks to Paulo Dybala’s fine effort after 65 minutes.

The forward scored his sixth of the season when he controlled Alex Sandro’s driven cross before slamming a powerful effort past Gianluigi Donnarumma.

Milan’s 16-year-old keeper had been the game’s outstanding player, saving a long-range shot from Claudio Marchisio and a deflected Hernanes free kick in the first half, and blocking a Paul Pogba effort from almost 40 metres on the hour.

Juve’s third-straight league victory takes them above their opponents into sixth place on 21 points, with Milan dropping to seventh, one point behind.

“The important thing was to win and go ahead of Milan in the Serie A table,” Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri told Mediaset Premium.

“Hopefully we’ll get a good result on Wednesday against Manchester City (in the Champions League) too."





(Reporting by Ed Dove, Editing by Ken Ferris)


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Source: Reuters



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