Juventus continue their title charge after their sixth straight win while PSG earned the bragging rights in the 100th La Classique.
Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 16th goal in the Serie A this season as Juventus beat rivals A.S. Roma 2-0 on Saturday night in Turin.
The Portuguese international opened the scoring in the 13th minute after his left footed strike from the edge of the box was driven into the bottom corner.
Midway into the second-half Juventus doubled their lead as Roma defender Roger Ibanez turned Dejan Kulusevski’s low cross into his own net.
Despite giving up a lot of possession and sitting very deep for the majority of the game the Old Lady never looked like conceding as Roma huffed and puffed.
Manager Andrea Pirlo explained after the game that the deep defensive line was a tactical plan: “We had prepared for this type of match. We knew Roma play very good football, so we were prepared to sit back, defend and then go on the counter.”
The Giallorossi boss Paulo Fonseca was pleased with sides courage but admitted they were not good enough in front of goal: “We showed courage to come here and play the game the way we wanted. That being said we were playing Juve, who defended well in front of their box.
“It was tough, we made mistakes with the final pass but in the other areas we did pretty well”
After defeat Roma dropped down to fourth as Juventus leapfrog them into third just seven points off the top with a game-in-hand on all the teams in the top four.
Fonseca’s side will look to bounce back next week as they host mid-table Udinese next Sunday.
Juventus travel to the Stadio San Paolo as Pirlo will face his former teammate Gennaro Gattuso as the Old Lady take-on Napoli on Saturday.
La Classique
Kylian Mbappe and Mauro Icardi were on the scoresheet as Paris Saint-Germain took all three points in the 100th La Classique at the Stade Velodrome.
PSG took the lead after just nine minutes when a clinical counterattack was dispatched by French international Mbappe.
Les Parisians doubled their lead in the first-half after Alessandro Florenzi’s cross picked out Icardi whose flick on left Steve Mandanda flat footed as he watched the ball loop over his head and into the net.
Marseille struggled to create chances and it got worse in the 91st minute after a high challenge from Dimitri Payet saw him receive a red card.
Payet will be a big miss for Marseille as he will be banned for Wednesday’s tie against Auxerre in the Coupe De France and also fixtures against Bordeaux and OGC Nice.
Mauricio Pochettino’s side remain three points behind league leaders Lille however, their focus will be on Wednesday’s cup tie against Caen as they look to lift the trophy for the seventh time in eight years.
By Bryce Densham
