Juventus left frustrated in goalless stalemate with Roma

Juve’s first step up in competition saw them unable to break down a resolute capital club, but there was promise in the slog.

As Juventus went about demolishing Como and Hellas Verona over the season’s first two weeks, most of us started looking at the Round 3 game against Roma as perhaps the first real inflection point of the 2024-25 season.

All respect to Juve’s first two opponents, but Roma — even a scuffling Roma that was coming off a draw and a shocking upset loss to Empoli in its first two games — was always going to be a step up in competition. If the Bianconeri could do what they had done to those provinciale against the club from the capital, then the optimism could perhaps be kicked into overdrive.

Alas, that coming out party wasn’t to be seen — yet.

In a match as frustrating as it was sloppy, neither side could breach the other’s defenses in a goalless draw. In the frustration, though, there were still encouraging signs. Debuts were made by all three of the week’s new signings, and the quality in those players was immediately evident. At their most promising in the second half, there were some excellent passing exchanges that ended up coming to a screeching halt, but that was often more to do with miscommunication than anything else.

That’s predictable, considering the fact that many of the players have only been training with each other for a few days. But it’s not hard to envision this team putting a button on those moves with shots and goals once they’ve gotten to know each other a little bit better. So while the new Juventus’ first breakout in a big game didn’t happen on this day, there were a lot of signs that that day is coming.

Thiago Motta was still missing Khephren Thuram, Tim Weah, and Arkadiusz Milik due to injury. He left new signings Francisco Conceiçāo, Nico Gonzalez, and Teun Koopmeiners on the bench, instead relying on an unchanged lineup from last week’s win in Verona. Michele Di Gregorio sat at the bottom of a 4-2-3-1, with Nicolò Savona, Federico Gatti, Bremer, and Juan Cabal screening him in defense. Nicolo Fagioli and Manuel Locatelli formed up in the double pivot behind the line of Andrea Cambiaso, Kenan Yildiz, and Samuel Mbangula, who supported Dusan Vlahovic in attack.

Daniele De Rossi made a couple of eye-opening changes to his lineup, including dropping former Juve players Leandro Paredes and Paulo Dybala. Enzo Le Fee was injured, and Chris Smalling sat on the bench ahead of a pending move to Saudi Arabia. The Roma great mirrored Motta’s formation, with Mile Svilar playing in goal. Zeki Çelik, Gianluca Mancini, Evan Ndicka, and Angeliño stretched across the back. De Rossi gave a surprising debut to 19-year-old Niccolò Pisilli in midfield, partnering Bryan Cristante. Matias Soule came back home after his summer move from Juve, with Lorenzo Pellegrini and Alexis Saelemaekers joining him to support Roma’s big summer signing, Artem Dovbyk.