Sebastian Giovinco
Juventus extended their unbeaten run to 45 games in Serie A when they triumphed 4-1 over Roma at the Juventus Stadium, to move the Old Lady further up the leader board.
A chance was immediately gifted to Juventus inside ten minutes after Rodrigo Taddei was booked for conceding a free-kick on the edge of the area.
Andrea Pirlo stood up to take the set-piece and he made no error with his specialty free-kicks when he rounded the wall with a low attempt to hit the back of the net, 1-0.
Controversy was rife right from the start of the game when the hosts were handed a penalty just three minutes after taking the lead.
Leandro Castan was booked for a hand ball in the box after which Arturo Vidal made no error in converting the spot-kick to Maarten Stekelenburg’s left hand side, 2-0.
A further four minutes later the scoreline was tripled when Alessandro Matri blasted in an effort which tore through the tattered Roma backline, 3-0.
The Roma backline was cooked by the time the 26th minute came about and coach Zdenek Zeman opted to make his first change, six minutes later, by bringing in Marquinhos for Federico Balzaretti.
With a comfortable lead coming into the second half, Juventus dropped their pressure in front of goal as Roma opted to remove Francesco Totti as their leading front man and replaced him with Mattia Destro.
Destro made an immediate impact to the squad when he won the Giallorossi a penalty after he was elbowed by Leonardo Bonucci.
Sixty-eight minutes in, Pablo Osvaldo made no error in converting the spot kick, giving Roma what would be a consolation goal, 3-1.
Bonucci thought he had made amends for his error when he headed the ball into the back of the net, only for the linesman to rule it out four minutes later.
There was to be no comeback for Roma when Sebastian Giovinco made it 4-1 by breaking through the defence, to round Maarten Stekelenburg and slice it into the back of the net in the 90th minute.