Juventus player ratings vs Roma: Another Mandzukic header delivers win

I guess we should just get used to this version of Juventus.

Once again Juventus dominated a match against a team they were clearly more talented than, but only managed to win by a goal. This continued a troubling trend of Juventus controlling matches and lacking the killer instinct to put teams away.

Juventus did manage to create chances throughout the match, but over the first half hour Robin Olsen put in an impressive effort to once again keep Roma in a match. Unfortunately for the squad from the capital there was nothing Olsen could do to save them from Mario Mandzukic’s 35th minute header. It was set up by an interception from Rodrigo Bentancur (or giveaway by Davide Santon) and then a beautiful cross from Mattia De Sciglio. That scoreline would hold until halftime.

In the second half it was more of the same with Juve dominating the chances, but unable to get the ball past a resilient Olsen. That did temporarily change late in the match when a Cristiano Ronaldo cross was turned into the goal by substitute Douglas Costa (who once again should’ve started the match). Unfortunately for Juve the stoppage time goal was overturned by a questionable VAR decision. Roma didn’t threaten over the couple minutes that remained and Juventus held on for a 1-0 win.

GK: Wojciech Szczesny 7/10

This was another pretty straightforward day for Wojciech Szczesny. He made 4 saves on the day, which is a higher number than usual, but he was never really challenged by Roma. Szczesny was once again overshadowed by the opposing keeper simply because Juve doesn’t give up many chances. However, it was Szczesny’s 4th consecutive Serie A clean sheet and these types of performances are plenty for him to not need to worry about job security.