Roma Vs. Juventus, 2011 Serie A: Fulltime, 1-1 Draw Leaves No One Very Pleased

AS Roma may have taken a surprising lead against Juventus with a goal by Daniele De Rossi, but in the end, the mish-mash of players wearing red and yellow just couldn't pull off all three points. In the 61st minute, Giorgio Chiellini scored the equalizer. Roma had the freedom to take a lead again, but Gigi Buffon saved a penalty from Francesco Totti to preserve a point for the visitors.

The giallorossi took the early lead via a horrible error by Arturo Vidal, who had, quite simply, a bad game for Juve. De Rossi put in a ball that should have been simple enough to clear, but Vidal completely scuffed it, allowing the shot to continue on and into the back of the net.

For the remaining 40 minutes of the first half, Juventus tried to respond, but had no answers. Simone Pepe played through sloppy passes. Alessandro Matri forgot how the offside rule operates. Claudio Marchisio was nearly invisible. It took until the final third of the match for Juve to score, off a header by Chiellini, the defender's first goal of the season.

But, less than a minute later, the visitors very surrendered again, when Arturo Vidal took down Erik Lamela inside the area, earning himself a yellow in the process. Fortunately for the Chilean, not only was Totti's penalty not quite good enough, but when the ball fell after Gigi's punch, no Roma players were near enough to capitalize. Still, Vidal will have plenty of time to think about his mistakes, with his yellow earning him a place in the stands against Novara.

And so Juventus take top once again, although they are even on points with Udinese, who beat Chievo Verona at the weekend. Still, the bianconeri faithful might not take many positives out of that match, considering the sloppiness of play and the clear gaps in thinking. Still, Eljero Elia managed to get in a few minutes, so that's something. Right?