London - Arabstoday
Juventus came from behind to draw 1-1 at Roma tonight and return to the top of the Serie A table. Daniele De Rossi had given the hosts an early lead before Giorgio Chiellini equalised in the second half. However, Roma captain Francesco Totti then missed a penalty as Juve stretched their unbeaten start to the season to 14 games. Although he missed his penalty, Roma coach Luis Enrique said that with the way things have been going for his team they were lucky not to concede in that moment. \"The way things have been going the penalty could have hit the post, come out and we could have conceded a goal on the counter-attack,\" Enrique said with a smirk. \"I thought Francesco would do what he does best and score but he had [Gianluigi] Buffon in front of him and he\'s an imposing goalkeeper.\" They are now ahead of Udinese, who were 2-1 winners over Chievo yesterday, on goal difference, with AC Milan and Lazio two points further back. Roma came into the game with a selection crisis that saw midfielder De Rossi line up as Gabriel Heinze\'s centre-back partner, while teenage midfielder Federico Viviani was thrust into a league debut. Emblematic striker Totti also made his return to the starting line-up with Bojan Krkic suspended. And it was the hosts who came flying out of the blocks with a goal after six minutes, although it was one Juve\'s Arturo Vidal will not want to see again. Totti crossed from the left and found De Rossi 15 yards out, but all the makeshift centre-back could do was awkwardly help it towards the goal on the volley. The ball was heading straight to Vidal and bounced in front of him, but the Chilean midfielder\'s wild swipe completely missed the ball and goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon was left to watch in horror as the ball sneaked inside the post. From there on, though, it was all Juve throughout the first half. Goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg had to save smartly from Alessandro Matri. Then Roma\'s makeshift full-back Rodrigo Taddei produced a carbon copy of Vidal\'s air-swipe only this time the ball ran to Marcelo Estigarribia 20 yards out and Stekelenburg came to his team-mate\'s rescue. Vidal hit a speculative effort wide before slipping in Simone Pepe who\'s shot on the turn was poor and caused Stekelenburg few concerns. The goalkeeper then grabbed a header from Stephan Lichtsteiner and held onto a low free-kick from Andrea Pirlo. Heinze made a crucial sliding interception from Pepe\'s cross to deny Matri a simple tap-in. Juve equalised just past the hour mark, though, with Chiellini\'s quickest to Estigarribia\'s scuffed, bouncing shot to beat Stekelenburg to it and head home. Totti denied Moments later Roma had a penalty when Vidal, who was not having the best of days, was adjudged to have brought down Erik Lamela. But Buffon read former international team-mate Totti\'s spot-kick perfectly and beat out the powerful hit. Roma were doing better than they had in the first half and Pablo Osvaldo chipped just over the bar after a neat turn on the edge of the box. Up the other end Vidal teed up Lichtsteiner who side-footed into the side-netting. And Stekelenburg came to his side\'s rescue right at the death as he came out to block Fabio Quagliarella who had been slipped in by Eljero Elia.