Juventus player ratings vs Roma: Spectacular Dybala puts Juve back in 1st
By John Vaccaro
A couple of early goals helped lead Juventus to a win over Roma on Sunday.
Juve’s first goal was created by a free kick opportunity that Paulo Dybala delivered. He sent it into the box, where it slipped through the whole Roma defense and found Merih Demiral, who scored with his shin.
The next came when Dybala made a tackle at the edge of Roma’s penalty area and then drew a foul inside the box. Cristiano Ronaldo stepped up to the penalty spot and beat Pau Lopez to give Juve a 2-0 lead that they would take to halftime.
Roma would make things interesting in the second half thanks to a 68th minute Alex Sandro handball. Diego Perotti stepped up to cut the Juventus lead in half, but Roma would fall short of completely recovering, with Juve winning the match 2-1.
The match also had some big injuries that made this a bittersweet day for Juve and a brutal one for Roma. First, it was a knee injury to Merih Demiral, which we don’t yet know the severity of. Then Nicolo Zaniolo, who suffered ligament damage in his knee and will most likely miss the rest of the season.
GK: Wojciech Szczesny 7.5/10
This was yet another match where Wojciech Szczesny played well enough to deserve a clean sheet, but the players in front of him let him down. Unfortunately, a hand ball by Alex Sandro forced Szczesny to face a penalty, which he wasn’t able to save. He doesn’t get any blame for that, but it’s unfortunate that his teammates keep costing him clean sheets in matches like this. Hopefully they’ll do a better job for him on Wednesday.