Serie A | Juventus 1-1 Roma: Dybala assist replies to Vlahovic

Tammy Abraham met Paulo Dybala’s assist to cancel out a perfect Dusan Vlahovic free kick, as Roma held Juventus to a second consecutive draw.

It was only three months ago that Dybala walked out of this stadium in floods of tears after saying goodbye to the fans, but he returned as an opponent. Nicolò Zaniolo and Georginio Wijnaldum were out injured, so Lorenzo Pellegrini moved into a more advanced role with Nemanja Matic in midfield. Juve had a serious injury crisis after their dismal 0-0 draw at Sampdoria, missing Leonardo Bonucci, Angel Di Maria, Paul Pogba, Federico Chiesa and Kaio Jorge, with Wojciech Szczesny back in goal.

Watch the highlights here.

It took one minute and 16 seconds to break the deadlock, as Dusan Vlahovic curled a perfect free kick over the wall and in off the underside of the bar with Rui Patricio rooted to the spot. It was the first goal Roma have conceded all season.

Juve had the ball in the net again on 25 minutes with a sweeping Manuel Locatelli finish from the edge of the box. However, it was disallowed after a VAR on-field review because Vlahovic had controlled with his arm when getting away from Bryan Cristante.

Another Vlahovic free kick was just over the bar and Jose Mourinho made two changes at the break, as his team was being over-run.

Juan Cuadrado got past Nikola Zalewski only to drill well wide, while Alex Sandro thumped the crossbar only after play was halted for a handling offence.

Adrien Rabiot went off with a thigh issue, while Tammy Abraham didn’t get enough power onto the finish from Stephan El Shaarawy’s assist.

Roma were growing into the game and equalised when a corner found Dybala for an acrobatic volley at the back post, which turned into the assist for Abraham to nod in from six yards.

Arkadiusz Milik came on for his Juventus debut, having only just arrived on loan from Olympique Marseille. His first move was to perform a goal-line clearance, as the Roma corner bobbled around in the six-yard box in a goalmouth scramble until the striker hoofed it away.

Juventus 1-1 Roma

Vlahovic 2 (J), Abraham 69 (R)