Four Things We Learned: Roma hold firm to restrict Juventus

Draw no disaster despite title implications

Roma ended their final home game of the campaign with a satisfactory 0-0 draw with Juventus, in a match where Radja Nainggolan's second half red card effectively ended Roma's hopes of victory - after having acquitted themselves nicely in the previous 67 minutes.

Playing admirably in all phases of the game before being left a man down, the Giallorossi nevertheless became the first team to prevent Juve from having a shot on target in 53 matches this season.

Eusebio Di Francesco's comments reflected the general consensus that Roma's performance was indeed full of promise. "I was pleased with the squad's mentality and approach, trying to take the game to Juve tonight while we had 11 men on the pitch," he insisted.

Pressing energy in midfield

Whenever Di Francesco deploys Lorenzo Pellegrini and Nainggolan, you can guarantee they'll add a tremendous amount of dynamism and energy into Roma's output. This was precisely the case against the Bianconeri, where their defensive intensity, in particular, had a profound impact on proceedings.

Both superb pressers, Pellegrini and Nainggolan's aptitude in this regard was perfectly illustrated throughout, as they harried Juventus with the utmost aggression and determination. As seen in the images below, both men time and direct their pressing precisely, while also making sure to adhere sharply to pressing triggers like an opponent receiving with their back to goal or in an open body position.

This enabled them to pounce at the opportune moment to force a turnover, and then charge at the now unsettled Juventus backline to create high quality scoring chances.

Roma smartly generate 3v2s in midfield

Seeing as Juventus's front two of Gonzalo Higuain and Paulo Dybala would usually mark/block passing lanes to Roma's two central defenders, plus Alisson, Daniele De Rossi would shrewdly drop deep to assist. However, Blaise Matuidi would often follow the Roma captain to nullify his assistance.

This left Roma with a tough decision to go long or try and use Alisson as an extra man to strive to bypass the press.

Seeing as Roma were operating with three central mids and Juve only two, the logical choice was to go long to Edin Dzeko, who dropped deep to provide a viable option. This tactic worked wonderfully, for Matuidi was already out of the picture, leaving Daniele Rugani, who tracked Dzeko, and Miralem Pjanic in a 3v2 inferiority vs. Dzeko, Nainggolan and Pellegrini to battle for second balls.

Roma duly exploited their superiority to maintain possession on many occasions to progress their offensive moves.

Slick rotations

The crisply executed rotations between Pellegrini and Cengiz Under were a joy to watch and an effective method to create space for Pellegrini to use. Showing off their strong understanding between one another, whenever Cengiz would begin to drop towards the ball, Pellegrini would intuitively go the other way.

This slick interchange of positions, which was crucially undertaken at a rapid pace, made it very challenging for Juve to track them.

As seen in the graphics below, both Alex Sandro and Matuidi have been drawn to Cengiz, meaning Andrea Barzagli had to leave his central defensive post to cover for this blown assignment, thus manufacturing a huge gap in the away side's defensive structure.