After Roma’s hard-fought draw in Rotterdam on Thursday, the Giallorossi remained on the road for their next Serie A match against Frosinone, albeit only a dozen or so kilometers away from home. The Roma fans could easily be heard singing their song prior to kickoff in what would be a crucial match for the Romans to stay in the race for fourth place. After Bologna’s fourth straight and Atalanta’s fifth straight league win, Roma found themselves seven points behind the two teams tied for fourth entering the game and needing to regain their momentum.
           Daniele De Rossi made a whole host of changes from Thursday’s draw, looking to give players rest with the schedule getting more congested. Listed as a 4-2-3-1 officially, three changes were made on the backline with Angeliño, Rasmus Kristensen, and Dean Huijsen replacing Leonardo Spinazzola, Rick Karsdorp, and Diego Llorente respectively. Bryan Cristante returned to the starting lineup pairing with Leandro Paredes in the midfield. Tommaso Baldanzi made his first for Roma in the place of Paulo Dybala along with Stephen El-Shaarawy, and Sardar Azmoun starting in the middle of the two behind sole striker Romelu Lukaku.
           From the get-go Roma looked very uncomfortable with the ball and struggled to deal with the press of Frosinone, often being forced into passing the ball out wide just to boot it in the general direction of Lukaku, but giving him little chance to actually win the ball. Outside of a 15th minute strike by Lukaku which was saved and held by Frosinone GK Stefano Turati it was the home team dominating and having numerous chances to take the lead. Their press forced several bad passes from the likes of Huijsen, Cristante, Kristensen, and Mancini (probably forgetting another culprit), and this led to a few quick counter attacks that provided chances they were not able to capitalize on including an unmarked header from Reinier from inside the box that went wide. Leading scorer Matias Soule had two chances within the span of 90 seconds from outside the box in the 23rd and 24th minute, one going wide, and the other forcing a beautiful outstretched save from a diving Mile Svilar who looks to be overtaking Rui Patricio as the number one goalkeeper for Roma.
           Under ten minutes later the hosts had another opportunity to take the lead off a corner kick. With the ball up for grabs in the middle of the box, striker Kaio Jorge had three shots from short range to cash in, one being saved by Svilar, the next being blocked by Mancini, and the final one being shanked wide for a goal kick. Despite all these opportunities it was still 0-0 and Roma had to feel fortunate not to be losing by one or multiple goals. In the 38th minute Roma made the hosts pay for being wasteful with their opportunities, and it came from a very unlikely source.
           After receiving a pass from Gianluca Mancini at the halfway line and eleven players between him and the goal, 18-year-old Dean Huijsen decided he liked those odds and proceeded to cut straight through the Frosinone front four, before cutting the ball inside bamboozling Luca Mazzitelli in the process. Huijsen then let a shot rip from outside the box and as if it was hit by a striker, it curled perfectly into the upper right corner of the net to stun everyone watching and give Roma a frankly undeserved 1-0 lead right before halftime. Despite a couple more corner kicks and chances Frosinone couldn’t equalize before the break and went into halftime playing like the better team but without the goal to prove it.
           De Rossi made two changes to open the second half, with Lorenzo Pellegrini coming on in place of Lukaku, and Diego Llorente replacing goal scorer Dean Huijsen who had struggled under pressure defensively at times. Roma started the second half looking much more comfortable with the ball, holding it in Frosinone’s half with much more success, although they were unable to make the crucial pass to set up a dangerous opportunity.
           In the 65th minute Mile Svilar made Roma fans’ hearts skip a beat by slipping in his attempt to clear the ball, luckily the backline was ready and avoided a disaster by launching the ball down the other way to Lorenzo Pellegrini who led a pack of Roma players on the counterattack, only for Sardar Azmoun’s shot to be blocked barely after it left his foot. But the crisis was averted on what was a great day for Mile Svilar aside from that slip up (pun intended)
           Six minutes later it was another goal that largely came out of nowhere, as Bryan Cristante tried one of his classic shots from outside the box and when Turati was unable to hold onto it or direct it out of bounds it was Sardar Azmoun now playing as the sole striker who was able to reach the ball slowly dribbling away from a flailing Turati, and send it into the back of the net to double Roma’s lead with under 20 minutes to go. And from there Roma looked to hold down the fort and hold onto their lead without completely parking the bus.
           Things went from bad to worse for the hosts as in the 78th minute a Tommaso Baldanzi shot struck the arm of Italian CB Memeh Caleb Okoli inside the box, and after a VAR intervention a penalty kick was awarded. Without Paulo Dybala on the field, it was his Argentine teammate Leandro Paredes who stepped up, and much like Dybala he easily converted the kick and secured all three points for the Giallorossi with a 3-0 lead.
           That would prove to be Baldanzi’s final kick of the ball as he was subbed off afterwards for Houseem Aouar to close out what was an impressive starting debut for the young Italian. While he didn’t log a goal involvement, he looked confident with the ball, was accurate with his passes and managed to win the ball for Roma on multiple occasions with his effort. And after the  10 final minutes plus three of added time passed, the referee blew the whistle to call and end to the regional derby, with Roma claiming a big 3-0 win that bolsters their UCL hopes, and worsens Frosinone’s fans worries of relegation.
           After the worst first half of the DDR era and possibly of the entire season, Roma came out in the second half and played greatly improved football that might have been the best second half of the DDR era. And while the didn’t deserve the 1-0 lead they took into halftime by the end of the 90 minutes Roma fully deserved the win and with that win keep themselves towards the front of the very crowded pack of seven teams fighting for one (maybe two) Champions League spots. They now sit in sole possession of sixth place with 41 points, four off of Bologna and Atalanta who are tied for fourth (although Atalanta have played one less game than both clubs), but Atalanta faces a very difficult league schedule with matches against Milan, Inter, Bologna, Juventus, Fiorentina, and Napoli ahead. All of those teams are in the top nine fighting for either champions league ambitions or title ambitions, so Roma will have the opportunity to gain on them. However, before they can focus on their next league match against Torino they must prepare for the second leg of their Europe League playoff round fixture against Feyenoord where the winner will advance to the round of 16. With the Feyenoord fans banned from buying tickets it is expected to be nearly 100% Roma fans making up the capacity crowd at the Stadio Olimpico as they look to will their team on to the next stage of their Europa League redemption story. And like always check back here for more Roma news and postmatch discussions.
Who will claim the final UCL spot in Serie A?
Atalanta
Bologna
Roma
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