WHAT A GAME-----Roma lose Battle of Turin but Scudetto war with Juventus will go all the way

 A magnificent and controversial game of see-saw football was won by Juventus, but the Giallorossi more than played their part
You can’t win with ballet shoes,” warned Rudi Garcia during the week as Roma prepared for Sunday’s Serie A showdown with Juventus.
It ended up being won with boxing gloves amid some of the most spellbinding drama seen anywhere in the football world this year. Goals, skill and controversy littered a marvellous 90 minutes, with Juve eventually edging the contest by the odd goal in five.
Five goals, three penalties, three red cards and a debatable winning goal will have fans, players and staff on both sides of the fence picking over the charred remains of a barnburner, but one thing Roma can take from it is that they are right in the Scudetto mix this time around.
Whereas they had previously rolled over at the first sight of Juventus Stadium in their previous four visits, the Giallorossi went toe-to-toe with the champions, and the result was a wonderful game of football.There was a clear conditioning of the thrill-a-minute first half by Gianluca Rocchi. The best referees draw a line in the sand which governs the game from an early point, but the Florentine regularly does a good job of allowing the game to quickly descend into madness.

By the break there had been three penalties, six yellow cards, four goals, a sending-off for Roma boss Rudi Garcia, and a beautifully executed goal scored by Juan Iturbe which was at odds with the chaos going on all around.

The first penalty came when Douglas Maicon jumped arm-first into a block from Andrea Pirlo’s free-kick. With the Brazilian being just inside the box at time of contact, Rocchi somehow decreed that another free-kick should follow.

That he eventually gave a penalty was only fair, but the messy way in which the decision was administered made it look a lot like the protestations of Juve players had changed the referee’s mind rather than advice from his colleagues. Regardless, Carlos Tevez slotted away the opener.

A Roma equaliser followed soon after thanks to a second spot-kick.
Stephan Lichtsteiner and Francesco Totti manhandled one another in the type of challenge that would see the defender favoured 99 times out of 100. But to Rocchi it was the Swiss who was more culpable and again he pointed to the spot, from where Totti levelled the score.

Before penalty number three came the outstanding moment of the first half, with Gervinho slipping a beautiful slide-rule pass in behind the home defence for Juan Iturbe to finish calmly. It was a brilliantly worked goal but also a huge statement for a Giallorossi side that had struggled to have any sort of impact on their four previous trips to Juventus Stadium.

But Juve were level by half-time, with Miralem Pjanic lightly clipping Paul Pogba right on the edge of the box in the second minute of injury time. Tevez again sent Lukasz Skorupski the wrong way.

The second half was purely about the football for the most part. Pjanic could have put Roma back in front but screwed an effort wide, while substitute Alvaro Morata – who again replaced an ineffective Fernando Llorente – struck the top of the bar late on.

It was blow-for-blow, pound-for-pound and without a ballet shoe in sight. The inseparable leaders of Serie A remained exactly that until a stunning but controversial winner in the 86th minute.

After Skorupski gave away a needless corner, Leonardo Bonucci met a half-cleared flag-kick with a wonderful first-time volley. Yet as the defender wheeled away in delight with his team-mates, Roma’s players rightly raised a question over Arturo Vidal’s offside position in Skorupski’s eyeline.

"It was the most important goal of my career," Bonucci told Sky Sport at full time.

"We won the three points against a great Roma side. We showed the response of a great team. We showed again that in Italy we are the best team."

The drama wasn’t over, with Alvaro Morata and Kostas Manolas going head-to-head after a collision near the touchline and both seeing red as a result.

Roma couldn’t fight back again, but the Battle of Turin has proved that these two are much closer than they have been for years. The war is still a long way from over, and while Juve still walked away with the three points there is now proof that Roma can go all the way with them.

Thirty-two fascinating weeks remain in what threatens to be a season-long rivalry for the ages.