Spalletti's Juve never give up! Roma bottle two-goal lead and lose two points in 93rd minute

Fireworks, passion, duels, tackles, shots, chances, goals - everything we weren’t so used to seeing in a derby between Roma and Juventus, we saw last night. In one of the best clashes of the Giallorossi and the Bianconeri in the current decade, the two rivals shared spoils in a six-goal thriller (3-3), leaving everything open in the Serie A Champions League race.

Although there were chances on both sides, the opening 45 minutes brought only a single goal - Wesley Franca’s fantastic 39th-minute opener. Just two minutes into the second half, Francisco Conceicao scored an absolutely beautiful screamer to level the score, but it turned out that it was only a brief bounce-back of the visitors.

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In the 54th minute, Evan Ndicka put Roma back in front, while Donyell Malen gave the home team a two-goal advantage 11 minutes later. However, whenever it is written off, Luciano Spalletti’s crew proves it has nine lives.

Juve pulled one back over Jeremie Boga in the 78th minute, as the Ivorian set the stage for a nerve-wracking finish. The Wolfess held out until the third minute of added time, when Federico Gatti (who came off the bench just five minutes earlier) scored a vital leveller for his team, shocking the packed Stadio Olimpico!

Unlike the majority of their recent duels, both Roma and Juventus went for an opener from the very beginning of the match. With the Champions League spot at stake, neither side had time to lose.

The Wolfess threatened first, just three minutes into the match. The Bianconeri's keeper Mattia Perin stopped Niccolo Pisilli's effort, and Lorenzo Pellegrini picked up a rebound, only to miss the entire goal from five meters, firing the ball over the bar.

Nine minutes later, Kenan Yildiz wasted Juve's fantastic counterattack, shooting poorly, although he had two options for pass in a 3-on-2 fastbreak.

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One of Roma's most lethal players, Donyell Malen, had a massive chance midway through the period, but Perin pulled off a point-blank save, while the visitors' Weston McKennie's 33rd-minute header went narrowly wide of the Giallorossi's right post.

Finally, after so many missed opportunities, one had to hit the bullseye. Six minutes before the break, Pisilli won the ball in the rivals' half, passed it to Wesley Franca, and the Brazilian fired an arrow into Perin's top-left corner, scoring a banger for Roma's lead at the break.

However, just two minutes after the half-time pause, Juventus equalized, bringing the match to square one! The Giallorossi's defence cleared the ball after the visitors' free kick, Gleison Bremer got it and left it for Francisco Conceicao, who fired it with a first-touch volley, and scored an exceptional screamer and one of the most beautiful goals of the season - 1-1.

Nevertheless, the Portuguese's goal did not dishearten the home team. On the contrary, it pushed them toward taking the lead again, and it came only seven minutes following Juve's leveller. This time, a corner kick was lethal for Luciano Spalletti's crew, as Evan Ndicka was left alone in the Turin side's box and knew how to punish the rivals, putting Roma back in front.

As if the centre-back's goal totally devastated the visitors, eleven minutes later, their defence collapsed for the third time in the game, indicating that they would lose perhaps the crucial UCL battle. Manu Kone did most of the job, meeting Malen with a marvellous defence-splitting pass, as the Dutchman easily chipped the ball over Perin, making it 3-1.

Still, just like in the Champions League match against Galatasaray, the Bianconeri refused to give up, despite all the odds, pulling one back over the sub Jeremie Boga, who seized the chance to find the back of the net of a rebound in the 78th minute, following Roma's defence's poor clearance.

There was enough time for Juventus to salvage at least a draw, and they once again showed a never-give-up spirit, avoiding a defeat in the nick of time, thanks to Federico Gatti's heroic 93rd-minute equalizer! The defender who came off the bench just five minutes earlier exploited Ndicka's poor reaction and smashed the ball into the net for the visitors' immense joy and the shock of the packed Stadio Olimpico.

SERIE A - MATCHDAY 27

Friday

Parma - Cagliari 1-1 (0-0)

/Oristanio 83 - Folorunsho 62/

Saturday

Como - Lecce 3-1 (3-1)

/Douvikas 18, Rodriguez 36, Kempf 44 - Coulibaly 13/

Verona - Napoli 1-2 (0-1)

/Akpa Akpro 64 - Hojlund 2, Lukaku 90+6/

Inter - Genoa 2-0 (1-0)

/Dimarco 31, Calhanoglu 70 pen/

Sunday

Cremonese - Milan 0-2 (0-0)

/Pavlovic 89, Leao 90+4/

Sassuolo - Atalanta 2-1 (1-0)

/Kone 23, Thorstvedt 69 - Musah 88/

Torino - Lazio 2-0 (1-0)

/Simeone 21, Zapata 53/

Roma - Juventus 3-3 (1-0)

/Wesley 39, Ndicka 54, Malen 65 - Conceicao 47, Boga 78, Gatti 90+3/

Monday

20.30: (4.00) Pisa (3.35) Bologna (2.05)

22.45: (3.25) Udinese (3.25) Fiorentina (2.40)

***odds are subject to change***