Juventus suffer 3-1 defeat to Roma on final day of season
Diego Perotti scored twice and set up another as Roma ended Juventus’ long unbeaten home Serie A run with a 3-1 win just six days before the Bianconeri’s crucial Champions League tie with Lyon.
Gonzalo Higuain had put Juve in front in Saturday’s Serie A finale but Perotti set up Nikola Kalinic’s equaliser and put Roma ahead from the penalty spot before half-time at the Allianz Stadium.
The winger gave fifth-placed Roma a cushion early in the second half as Juventus succumbed to a first home Serie A defeat since a 1-0 reverse to Napoli in April 2018 – a run of 39 games.
It means champions Juve, who rested several players including Cristiano Ronaldo, finish the campaign with back-to-back losses before aiming to overturn a last-16 deficit against Ligue 1 Lyon.
Higuain turned in from close range just six minutes in after pouncing on Adrien Rabiot’s flick from Federico Bernardeschi’s corner.
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Juve were undone by a corner themselves, though, as Kalinic nonchalantly converted Perotti’s delivery.
Gianluca Frabotta – making a first Juve appearance – dragged wide, while fellow youngster Riccardo Calafiori rifled home at the other end, only for the ball to have gone out of play from the preceding corner.
Calafiori then drew the foul from Danilo for Perotti’s penalty to find the bottom-right corner and put Roma ahead.
Perotti stretched the lead seven minutes into the second half, sweeping home inside the area – via a deflection off Merih Demiral – after collecting Nicolo Zaniolo’s perfectly weighted pass.
Aaron Ramsey hit the post with a sweet effort and Higuain nearly found the bottom-left corner with a 20-yard strike.
But Roma had other chances themselves, with Davide Zappacosta shooting narrowly wide and Wojciech Szczesny made a couple of decent saves as Juve faltered before a huge Champions League showdown.
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