Juventus produce stunning fightback to beat Roma in seven-goal thriller
Juventus made a surprise comeback with three goals in seven second-half minutes to beat AS Roma 4-3 on Sunday when goalkeeper Wojciech Szczecini saved a late penalty to put them in front at the Stadio Olimpico.
Tammy Abraham put Jose Mourinho's side in front and Paulo Dybala went into the break to make it 1-1, but goals from Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Lorenzo Pellegrini put Roma in charge at the start of the second half.
Manuel Locatelli and Dejan Kulusevski scored within two minutes of each other, and Mattia di Siglio scored the fourth in the 77th minute.
"We are delighted to have a very important victory, especially how it went," Di Ciglio told DAZN.
He said, "We started the second half very badly, but our character showed up in difficult times. But we need to watch it from the beginning."
Roma were awarded a penalty after Matthijs de Ligt was shown the second yellow for a handball with nine minutes remaining, but Szczecini guessed the correct way to save Pellegrini's penalty in front of a stunned home crowd.
Juventus moved up to 38 points in fifth place, six points ahead of eighth-placed Roma.
"We were in complete control for 70 minutes. The team played really well, controlled the game," Mourinho told DAZN.
"We wanted to go up and take control of the game. It was great for 70 minutes, then there was a psychological collapse."
A frantic start set the pace for 90 minutes ahead, as Abraham scored his fourth goal in four games from a corner.
Dybala curled in an unstoppable strike to draw Juve level, but the visitors were dealt a blow when winger Federico Chiesa went on a limp.
Roma saw the game in the bag when Mkhitaryan's deflected shot looped on Szczecini and Pellegrini swung an excellent free kick into the top corner within eight minutes of the start of the second half.
Juventus have struggled for goals this season, scoring just 28 runs in 20 matches before their trip to Rome, but they turned on the style to make an unexpected comeback in an extraordinary seven-minute period.
Kulusevski left Locatelli at the head before returning home to equalize, although the Swede's goal was given only after a VAR review after being disallowed for offside at the start.
De Siglio bounced off a careless Chris Smalling header to fire Juve's fourth, but his hard work was nearly undone when a VAR review showed that de Ligt had blocked an Abraham shot with his hand. , resulting in a second booking for the Dutchman.
Roma captain Pellegrini was tasked with a spot kick, but his low shot was saved.
