Juve gain point to go back to top

Juventus came from behind to draw 1-1 at Roma on Monday and return to the top of the Serie A table. Daniele De Rossi had given the hosts an early lead before Giorgio Chiellini equalised in the second half. But Roma captain Francesco Totti then missed a penalty as Juve stretched their unbeaten start to the season to 14 games. They are now ahead of Udinese - 2-1 winners over Chievo on Sunday, on goal difference, with AC Milan and Lazio two points further back. Although Juve had more of the game, goalscorer Chiellini said this was a good point. "Given how things went this is an important point because it shows that even though we went behind, we fought right to the end for the victory," he told Sky. "We were lacking a bit of lucidity and we gave away too many counter-attacks but it's a good result and allows us to retake the lead in the table." Roma came into the game with a selection crisis that saw midfielder De Rossi lined up as Gabriel Heinze's centre-back partner while teenage midfielder Federico Viviani was thrust into a league debut. Emblematic striker Totti also made his return to the starting line-up with Bojan Krkic suspended. Although he missed his penalty, Roma coach Luis Enrique said that with the way things have been going for his team they were lucky not to concede in that moment. "The way things have been going the penalty could have hit the post, come out and we could have conceded a goal on the counter-attack," he said with a smirk. "I thought Francesco would do what he does best and score but he had (Gianluigi) Buffon in front of him and he's an imposing goalkeeper." And it was the hosts who came flying out of the blocks with a goal after six minutes, although it was one Juve's Arturo Vidal won't want to see again. Totti crossed from the left and found De Rossi 15 yards out, but all the makeshift centre-back could do was awkwardly help it goalwards on the volley. The ball was heading straight to Vidal and bounced in front of him but the Chile midfielder's wild swipe completely missed the ball and Buffon was left to watch in horror as the ball sneaked inside the post. From there on it was all Juve in the first period. Goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg had to save smartly from Alessandro Matri. Then Roma's makeshift full-back Rodrigo Taddei produced a carbon copy of Vidal's air-swipe only this time the ball ran to Marcelo Estigarribia 20 yards out and Stekelenburg came to his team-mate's rescue. Vidal hit a speculative effort wide before slipping in Simone Pepe who's shot on the turn was poor and caused Stekelenburg few concerns. The goalkeeper then claimed a header from Stephan Lichtsteiner and held onto a low Andrea Pirlo free-kick. Heinze made a crucial sliding interception from Pepe's cross to deny Matri a simple tap-in. Juve equalised just past the hour mark through Chiellini's determination, reacting quickest to Estigarribia's scuffed, bouncing shot to beat Stekelenburg to it and head home. And yet moments later Roma had a penalty when Vidal, who was not having the best of days, was adjudged to have brought down Erik Lamela. But Buffon read former international team-mate Totti's spot-kick perfectly and beat out the powerful hit. Roma were doing better than they had in the first half and Pablo Osvaldo chipped just over the bar after a neat turn on the edge of the box. Up the other end Vidal, who in fairness had played much better going forwards than he had backwards, teed up Lichtsteiner who side-footed into the side-netting. And Stekelenburg came to his side's rescue right at the death as he came out to block Fabio Quagliarella who had been slipped in by Eljero Elia.