Juventus 3-0 Roma: Del Piero classic the highlight as league leaders advance to Coppa Italia semis

Despite controlling possession for the opening five minutes, Roma was taught a lesson in penetrative football when the hosts took the lead against the run of play in the sixth minute.

Central defender Andrea Barzagli dissected the Giallorossi defense with a fortunate 40-yard pass which inadvertently released Giaccherini, who made no mistake, slotting across the haplessly exposed Maarten Stekelenburg from 10 yards to fire Juventus ahead.

Goalkeeper Marco Storari’s no-nonsense punt found Marco Borriello, who held off Simon Kjaer’s half-hearted challenge and headed down to Del Piero.

The 37-year-old strode forward and attempted to prod the ball to his strike partner only for it to come straight back to him off Rodrigo Taddei. But he made no mistake second time around, curling a sublime shot into the net via the crossbar to double his side’s advantage.

Fernando Gago forced a smart save from Storari in the 37^th minute with a dipping strike from 35 yards. Then, seven minutes later the Juve custodian was forced to scramble across his goal to try and stop a thunderous Miralem Pjanic free kick. But to his and Juventus’ relief, the effort crashed into the advertising boards behind the goal rather than the net.

But any hope of an unlikely comeback fell by the wayside in the 68^th minute when Lamela was shown a straight red card for kicking out at Giorgio Chiellini in an off-the-ball incident.

Substitute Fabio Quagliarella should have wrapped things up in the 12 minutes from the end, but side-footed against the crossbar with the goal gaping.

However, he made amends for the miss in the final minute by fizzing over the teasing, low cross which Kjaer only succeeded in forcing past Stekelenburg and into his own net to round off a miserable evening for Roma.

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