New Year in the Capital. A common destination for many, not for Juventus.
Although the Bianconeri seldom travel to face Roma at the Olimpico at the turn of the year, fate would have it that this Sunday for the second time in three seasons the Lady heads to Rome.
In the 40 previous years, the trip to face the Giallorossi on Serie A duty in January occurred only twice.
Both those matches date back to the ‘80s: a goalless encounter in 1981, followed eight years later by an emphatic 3-1 success for the Bianconeri.
Alessandro Altobelli and Rui Barros gave Juventus a two goal advantage before Giuseppe Giannini and Antonio Cabrini converted late penalties to complete the scoring.
Fast forward to January 12, 2020, when penalties again played a key role. Cristiano Ronaldo swept home his spot kick after Merih Demiral’s tap-in to complete a whirlwind opening 10 minutes.
Sergio Perotti’s penalty proved to be no more than a consolation for the hosts.
Last season, Jordan Veretout and Ronaldo each bagged a brace, one a piece from the penalty spot, in a 2-2 stalemate.
Veretout was again put on the spot in the first meeting this season between the two sides, in Turin in November.
The Frenchman, hypnotised by Wojciech Szczesny, failed for the first time in 12 attempts from 12 yards. Tek’s save maintained Juve’s advantage.
Moise Kean’s 16th-minute header proved to be enough to claim all three points.
That Matchday 8 success moved Juventus to within one point of Roma.
Now Max Allegri and his men have a three-point advantage over their weekend opponents.
The turnaround can be traced back to the fact that from late October only two teams have suffered defeat more often than Roma. Their fifth loss in those 10 matches came at the hands of Milan on Thursday.
That same evening, thanks to Federico Chiesa’s equaliser against Napoli, Juventus extended their unbeaten run to six matches.
Twelve months ago Chiesa scored in both the opening matches of the year, the last time he has struck in consecutive league matches.
For the flying winger to repeat that feat, he is asked to finally find the net against Roma, after seven unsuccessful attempts so far, and make it a January trip to the Capital worth remembering.