Gasperini: Roma in ´battle to the end´ for Serie A Champions League spots

Gian Piero Gasperini warned Roma they will be in a “battle to the end” for the Serie A Champions League spots, despite him not expecting his first season to “go quite this well”.

Roma cruised to a 3-0 win over Cremonese at Stadio Olimpico on Sunday, giving their hopes of a top-four finish a massive boost.

Bryan Cristante, on his 350th appearance for Roma, Evan Ndicka and Niccolo Pisilli netted the goals in a dominant second half in which the hosts had 16 of their 23 shots.

It was a big weekend in the race for the Champions League places, with Napoli, Juventus and AC Milan all suffering defeats in their respective outings, allowing fourth-place Roma to draw level on 50 points with the reigning champions above them.

Roma are given a 62.8% chance of finishing in the top four by the Opta supercomputer, with their most likely finishing position fourth (29%).

And with fifth-place Juventus next up for them in the league, Gasperini noted how important it is for his side to keep their momentum going.

“Sunday will be a very important game; a win would be a big step forward,” Gasperini told DAZN Italia.

“However, with my experience at Atalanta and qualifying five times in seven years for the Champions League, we pretty much always decided it in the final couple of rounds.

“There are teams coming up behind us, too, like Atalanta and Como, so it will be a battle to the very end. This victory was necessary to give us a small advantage going into the next few weeks, which could yet prove decisive.”

It is the first time Roma have hit that points tally after their first 26 games since 2020-21 (also 50).

And they have won more than 15 matches (16) at this stage of a Serie A campaign for the first time since 2016-17 (19 in that case).

It has been an impressive first season so far for Gasperini, who admitted he was a little surprised by their success so far.

“I hoped that things would go well here,” he added.

“When I saw the reaction from these lads in the first few training sessions, I was convinced we’d do really well. Maybe not quite this well, but the spirit from the first days was ambitious, solid, and with many young players who are growing.

“Lads like Pisilli, [Lorenzo] Venturino, [Daniele] Ghilardi and [Jan] Ziolkowski are maturing well, it’s very satisfying to see.”