Title-chasing Juventus produced a professional display to extend their unbeaten to 13 matches with a narrow 1-0 win over Roma, moving them to within two points of the Serie A summit.Second-placed Juventus came into the contest with a chance to close the gap to Inter Milan after the Serie A leaders were held to a draw in Friday’s clash with Genoa. However, the Old Lady’s title aspirations were of no concern to the visitors, who threatened to break the deadlock when Bryan Cristante struck the woodwork in the opening five minutes. Following the lively start, the contest quickly descended into the sort of a cagey affair that reflected the pragmatism of the two coaches, Massimiliano Allegri and José Mourinho. The latter would have been relieved to see Evan Ndicka head Filip Kostić’s fierce strike off the line in the closing stages of the first period.Rossoneri end a year on a high thanks to PulisicAfter playing a drawn first half for the seventh time in their nine home league games, Juventus continued another trend after the interval, as they opened the scoring for the 15th time in Serie A this season. Dušan Vlahović showed great centre-forward play to neatly flick the ball into the path of Adrien Rabiot, who stroked a near-post effort past Rui Patrício. Having failed to win just two of the previous 14 league matches where they scored first, Juventus have developed a habit of protecting their leads.
Their resolute backline forced Roma to try the odd speculative effort, with former Juventus star Paulo Dybala drawing a routine save from Wojciech Szczęsny. As the Giallorossi pressed forward in search of an equaliser, the hosts attempted to exploit the space behind, with Weston McKennie spurning a golden opportunity to double his team’s advantage. Federico Chiesa thought he had then grabbed Juventus’ second of the evening when he slotted home from close range, only for his late effort to be chalked off for an offside infringement.##EDITORS_CHOICE##Ultimately, the hosts did not require the insurance of a second goal, as they saw out the remainder of the contest to condemn seventh-placed Roma to consecutive away defeats.SERIE A – MATCHDAY 18FridayFiorentina – Torino 1-0 (0-0)/Ranieri 83/Napoli – Monza 0-0Genoa – Inter 1-1 (1-1)/Dragusin 45+7 – Arnautovic 42/Lazio – Frosinone 3-1 (0-0)/Castellanos 70, Isaksen 72, Patric 84 – Soule 58 pen/SaturdayAtalanta – Lecce 1-0 (0-0)/Lookman 58/Cagliari – Empoli 0-0Udinese – Bologna 3-0 (1-0)/Pereyra 23, Lucca 48, Payero 52/AC Milan – Sassuolo 1-0 (0-0)/Pulisic 58/Verona – Salernitana 0-1 (0-0)/Tchaouna 48/Juventus – Roma 1-0 (0-0)/Rabiot 47/