Rome: A late glancing header from defender Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa earned Roma a stunning 2-1 victory over Lazio in a fiery city derby on Monday to secure the Giallorossi’s automatic entry to the Champions League.
Hosts Lazio looked to have salvaged a share of the spoils at the Stadio Olimpico when late substitute Filip Djordjevic headed Miroslav Klose’s headed cutback past Morgan De Sanctis in the Roma goal to level Juan Iturbe’s 73rd minute opener for the visitors.
A draw would have secured at least a third-place finish for Lazio and a place in the Champions League play-offs.
But Yanga-Mbiwa turned the match on its head with a glancing header from a free-kick five minutes from time to secure the points for Rudi Garcia’s side.
The result leaves Roma in second place, 16 points behind recently-crowned champions Juventus but four ahead of Lazio with one game remaining this season.
“Our objective this season was to qualify directly for the Champions League, and we’ve achieved that,” Garcia told reporters.
“Obviously when you win like this, having conceded a late leveller like we did, it only adds value to all the work we’ve done in recent weeks to prepare for this game.”
Lazio remain third but Stefano Pioli’s men, who sit three points ahead of Napoli, now require a point from their trip to Naples in their final game of the campaign next week, when Roma host Palermo.
“Today it’s only right we should hang our heads. We lost the game when we had ample opportunity to score goals,” Pioli told reporters after the match.
“Roma were better than us in the decisive moments. If we’d taken the lead when we had the opportunity to, it would have changed things tactically for us.
“We tried to play our game, and we put our opponents into difficulty, but in the end we conceded to a team that were superior in terms of scoring goals.”
If unsuccessful, it would be a spectacular fall from grace for Lazio, who have been playing some of the best football in Italy’s top flight since January.
But Pioli added: “We’ll go to Napoli to fight for the result that we need.”
