Football: Juventus top Roma on penalties in International Champions Cup friendly
Juventus closed out the International Champions Cup friendly tournament with a 5-4 win on penalties over Roma after the Italian clubs played to a 1-1 draw.
Mario Mandzukic’s opening goal for Italian champions Juventus was cancelled out by Edin Dzeko’s second-half strike.
The match, between last season’s top two teams in Serie A, offered a tantalizing glimpse of the upcoming domestic campaign.
Managers Massimiliano Allegri and Eusebio Di Francesco named strong starting lineups.
Juventus were more active in the opening minutes and were rewarded in the 29th when Croatian forward Mario Mandzukic beat Federico Fazio onto a through ball from Alex Sandro, dribbling around Roma goalkeeper Allison and firing to make it 1-0 in the 29th minute.
Roma’s Diego Perotti and Dzeko combined for three promising exchanges but were unable to break through and Roma went into the break a goal down.
But Dzeko delivered the equalizer in the 74th, tapping in a cross from Aleksandar Kolarov from close range.
But in the shootout, Marco Tumminello’s miss proved too much to overcome and Juventus handed Roma a second shoot-out defeat of the tournament.
The match drew some 33,000 fans to Gillette Stadium, home of the NFL’s Super Bowl champion New England Patriots.
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