Juve tighten grip on Serie A top spot
MILAN: Seydou Keita salvaged a point for 10-man Roma in a 1-1 draw with Juventus on Monday that saw the champions retain their nine-point lead at the top of Serie A.
Carlos Tevez curled a free-kick over the Roma wall for his 15th league goal of the season that took him top of the Serie A scoring charts. But Malian veteran Keita equalised in the 78th minute as Roma set club record sixth straight home draw.
Roma welcomed the Bianconeri to the Stadio Olimpico desperate for the win that would maintain their unlikely title challenge.
Rudi Garcia’s men had drawn six of their last seven league games but had never drawn six times consecutively at home, until Monday.
Under the circumstances, Roma — who have been ravaged by injuries to key players and only recently welcomed back Ivorian striker Gervinho from the Africa Cup of Nations — would be happy with a point.
Garcia told Sky Sport: his side had shown “character” to fight back into the game.
“In games like this we know it can come down to dead ball situations and in fact that’s how both goals were scored.
“We were down to 10 men and a goal down so to come back into the game like we did i n those circumstances showed character.”
However Juventus remain unbeaten against Roma this season and with a ninepoint advantage look to have one hand on what would be a fourth consecutive title.
Roma started with influential midfielders Radja Nainggolan and Juan Iturbe on the bench while Juventus were without Andrea Pirlo and Paul Pogba — two of their most creative players — as they sought to make it two wins from two over the Giallorossi following a bad-tempered 3-2 win in Turin early in the campaign.