Another week, another dead rubber. Juventus came into their match against Roma on Sunday night with little to play for other than pride — and the chance to get those fugly new uniforms over on fans with a victory. For the hosts, on the other hand, the game had a lot more riding on it. Roma’s shambolic season was winding to a close with their chances at a place in the UEFA Champions League almost up in smoke. Needing three wins and a lot of help to sneak into Serie A’s top four, the Giallorossi emerged from the tunnel in desperation mode. That desperation nearly turned into despair in a first half that saw Juve on the front foot for long stretches. A trio of Antonio Mirante saves that stretched from excellent to insane on the spectrum were all that kept the Old Lady of Italian football from killing the game by the break. But the half ended goalless. The game began to stretch in the second period, both teams started coming up with opportunities. Roma was given a huge let-off when Cristiano Ronaldo was — correctly — flagged just offside, then finally made the most of one of their opportunities when Alessandro Florenzi caught the left side of the defense napping and chipped a stranded Wojciech Szczesny. A stoppage time strike sealed Roma’s 2-0 victory, keeping them alive — barely — in the Champions League race. Massimiliano Allegri got a small boost with the return of Martin Caceres, Alex Sandro, Emre Can, Rodrigo Bentancur, and Paulo Dybala from the injured list, but still came into the game shorthanded — especially up front. Federico Bernardeschi was suspended due to yellow card accumulation and Moise Kean stayed home in Turin with the flu, leaving no healthy first-team forward for Allegri to deploy on the bench. Leonardo Bonucci also bowed out after he bruised an ankle in training. With few options, Allegri kept to the 4-3-3 that has been standard most of the year, but with a wrinkle up front. Szczesny started in goal against his former team behind the defense of Mattia De Sciglio, Caceres, Giorgio Chiellini, and Leonardo Spinazzola. Blaise Matuidi and Can joined another former Roma man, Miralem Pjanic, in midfield, with Ronaldo and Juan Cuadrado flanking Dybala, who played as a false nine. There were a lot of changes to Roma since the last time Juve faced them in December. Rather than Eusebio Di Francesco, they were guided by caretaker manager — and former Juve boss — Claudio Ranieri. Also new was the goalkeeper, with former Juve academy product Mirante having supplanted the error-prone Robin Olsen as the starter. In front of him Ranieri deployed a 4-3-3 of his own, with Florenzi, Federico Fazio, Kostas Manolas, and Aleksandr Kolarov arrayed in front of Mirante. Steven Nzonzi, Lorenzo Pellegrini, and Nicolo Zaniolo manned the midfield, while Justin Kluivert, Edin Dzeko, and Stephan El Shaarawy formed the strike team up front. Juve grabbed the upper hand early, and should have taken the lead seven minutes in when Blaise Matuidi released Emre Can on a counterattack. Cuadrado streaked down the right side unmarked and met Can’s square ball first time, but he put it in the one spot that Mirante would have been able to save it — and save it he did. It was an impressive stop, but also a definite miss by the Colombian. Roma was being forced to play on the counter in the first phases, as Juve played hard to get to loose balls and kept the Giallorossi penned in their own half of the Stadio Olimpico. With 16 minutes gone Mirante was called into action again when Ronaldo wove his way past four defenders to tee up Dybala in his sweet spot in the right channel. His left-footed effort was destined for the net, but this time Mirante made a truly fantastic stop, flying to his right and palming the ball away with one hand. Roma nearly took advantage of their keeper’s heroics two minutes later, moving swiftly up the field on the counter and delivering the ball to Pellegrini on the right side of the box, but his cross/shot toward Kluivert ended up hitting the bar. The 22-year-old had a shot go wide from the top of the penalty area before Mirante was called upon to yet again deny Dybala. This time it was a team move that created the opportunity, with Matuidi knocking a pass that Pjanic scooped over the top into the path of Ronaldo, who tapped it into the Argentine’s path. His powerful shot hit a sprawling Mirante in the hands and flew across the goalmouth, hitting the post on the other side and trickling into the middle of the six-yard box, where Can was flagged offside trying to poke it home. El Shaarawy has quietly had a bounce back season this year, leading Roma with 11 goals, and he got himself a good opportunity in the 36th minute when he beat his old Milan teammate De Sciglio and cut inside, but Chiellini slid into his shooting lane and blocked it with his chest. The half ended goalless, thanks entirely to the efforts of Mirante, and Roma got themselves the first chance of the second period four minutes in when El Shaarawy put in a good cross toward Dzeko, but Matuidi made a vital touch to disrupt the service, with Chiellini heading the second effort away from the box. Five minutes later a terrible pass by Can triggered a swift Roma counterattack, allowing Il faraone a great shooting opportunity, but he badly mishit it. The ball came right back to him off of Caceres, but he put it over. Just before the hour mark a minor scuffle broke out when Ronaldo began advancing the ball after Dzeko had gone down near the center circle. It was borderline unsportsmanlike, but Dzeko had also been embellishing the contact and had moved on to complaining to referee Davide Massa about not getting a foul, so the argument could be made that he had shown he didn’t need the attention. But once the ball had gone out of play Florenzi got into Ronaldo’s face, causing a minor rhubarb that Massa quickly broke up. Ronaldo would come away from the meeting making fun of Florenzi’s stature—a move he’d be eating later. Five minutes later it looked like he’d have the last laugh when Dybala put him clean through on goal. He beat Mirante one-on-one with a delightful stutter step, but the flag went up late. It was the right call — Ronaldo was offside by about the length of his thigh. Two minutes later Dybala again put a a man into a good position, but Can chose to take a shot at the near post rather than tee up one of three runners on his right, and Mirante was able to make his fourth save of the night. Then it was Szczesny’s turn to tip one away, poking an effort from El Shaarawy over the bar. With 20 minutes to go Allegri was forced into a move that probably changed the game in Roma’s favor. Rodrigo Bentancur was sent on in place of Pjanic, who was eventually attended to on the bench by the training staff. Pjanic had done a fairly good job making the team move in midfield, but Juve’s attacking game slowly began to devlove into Route 1 long balls, while Roma managed to carve out a foothold in possession. The payoff came nine minutes later when Chiellini overcommitted in an attempt to prevent Florenzi from making a square pass to Dzeko. The center-back thought the had the safety net of the offside trap behind him, but both full-backs were keeping the Roma captain on, and he burst into the space Chiellini left behind. He got a neat return from Dzeko and chipped the ball over Szczesny, who had rushed to close the angle, and into the net. Without Pjanic to pull the strings, Juve couldn’t manage much in the remaining 10 minutes to earn an equalizer.<doc-sep>How to watch Roma vs. Juventus in Serie A on Sunday, May 12. Roma looks to stay in the hunt for a Champions League berth when hosting recently crowned Serie A champion Juventus. Kickoff from the Stadio Olimpico in Rome is slated for 2:30 p.m. ET. Juventus has slumped since winning its eighth straight title with consecutive draws vs. Inter and Torino. Cristiano Ronaldo remains in the race for the league's golden boot, with his 21 goals trailing Fabio Quagliarella's 25 by four. Roma, meanwhile, enters Sunday sixth in Serie A, level with AC Milan and three points behind Atalanta out of a top-four berth that would send the club back to the Champions League stage. Here's how to watch Sunday's match: Time: 2:30 p.m. ET TV channel: ESPN, ESPN Deportes Live Stream: Watch live on fuboTV. Sign up now for a free seven-day trial. SI TV is also now available on fuboTV. Watch Planet Futbol TV, SI’s soccer show starring Grant Wahl and Luis Miguel Echegaray, weekly on Fubo TV or anytime, anywhere here.<doc-sep>Claudio Ranieri's side have been in prolific form of late and will be confident of resisting the attacking prowess of the recently-crowned champions AS Roma and Juventus will slug it out at the Stadio Olimpico in a Serie A clash on Sunday evening. The Old Lady were undefeated in five of their last six Serie A matches against the Rome-based outfit but have not won in their four visits to the Olimpico. The Bianconeri are unbeaten in their last three league games and victory for them is priced at (2.75) with Bet365. Claudio Ranieri’s men have won 14 of their 22 games at home in all competitions this season (D5 L3) and are valued at (2.40) odds with the same betting firm to come out victorious. The match outcome to end in a draw is offered at (3.50). Hence, it would more profitable for punters stake on the hosts to win or draw valued at (1.45) with Bet365. Odds correct at the time of writing. Please gamble responsibly.<doc-sep>
In previous years, any number of Juventus’ trips to the Italian capital has come with a decent amount of pressure accompanying them. There’s been Coppa Italia finals, there’s been top-of-the-table clashes be it against Roma or Lazio. There’s been lots of games that, despite Juve’s dominance over Serie A for the last eight years, have pushed the bianconeri to the edge and results far from easy to come by. Basically, the trip to Rome has never been a certainty and, because of that, these games have been important ones regardless of when on the schedule they are. Sure, Roma still has a chance at a Champions League spot. But, now more than ever before this season, they’re going to need some serious help from their friends if they are to go from sixth place to fourth in the next three weeks. Plus, the whole “beat Juventus and hope that the ever-impressive Atalanta train slows down” thing needs to happen, too. There is very much the kind of sense that last weekend’s draw against Genoa was the game that prevented Roma from Still, there’s this game. Juventus-Roma with a cloud hanging over both squads. Some of it because of what has happened on the field the last month or two. The other part, which is the one that the Italian press wants to serve to us on a silver platter with a giant glass of Pinot Grigio or two to top it all off, is the managerial situation revolving around both clubs as they enter the final three weeks of the season. You think they might talk about this during the game? You bet. So there is obviously more to it than just two teams playing against one another for 90 or so minutes. There’s the storylines that have nothing to do with the product that will be put out on the field. And there’s definitely going to be storylines about respective players in each team’s starting lineup because of what the transfer rumor mill is these days. But there’s also the same thing we’ve been saying the last couple of weeks when it comes to Juventus and their next opponent: The team in black and white doesn’t have much to play for at all, while the team they’re facing has plenty riding on the weekend’s fixture. So I guess all we can hope for is something a little better than the last couple of weeks. And, based on his pre-match press conference on Saturday, Max Allegri is in that line, too. Allegri: "Tomorrow will be a great game against Roma. We have to play better because then we will have the celebrations after at home to Atalanta. It will be an evening celebration, which is something different than previous years and will be nice for all to see. "#RomaJuve — JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) May 11, 2019 MATCH INFO When: Sunday, April 12, 2019 Where: Stadio Olimpico, Rome, Italy Official kickoff time: 8:30 p.m. local time in Italy and across Europe; 7:30 p.m. in the United Kingdom; 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time; 11:30 a.m. Pacific Time STARTING LINEUPS Juventus starting XI (4-3-3): Szczesny; De Sciglio, Caceres, Chiellini, Spinazzola; Emre Can, Pjanic, Matuidi; Cuadrado, Dybala, Ronaldo Juventus bench: Pinsoglio, Del Favero, Barzagli, Alex Sandro, Cancelo, Bentancur, Pereira da Silva, Kastanos, Nicolussi Caviglia Roma starting XI (4-3-3): Mirante; Florenzi, Manolas, Fazio, Kolarov; Zaniolo, Nzonzi, Lo Pellegrini; Kluivert, Dzeko, El Shaarawy HOW TO WATCH Television: ESPN, ESPN Deportes, RAI Italia America (United States); TLN, RAI Italia America (Canada); Premier Sports 1 (United Kingdom); Sky Calcio 1, Sky Sport Serie A, Sky Supercalcio HD, Sky Sport Uno, Roma TV (Italy) Online/mobile: WatchESPN, ESPN Deportes+ (United States); DAZN (Canada); SKY Go Italia (Italy) Other live viewing options can be found here, and as always, you can also follow along with us live and all the stupid things we say on Twitter. If you haven’t already, join the community on Black & White & Read All Over, and join in the discussion below.