Roma needed to beat Eintracht Frankfurt in the final round of the Europa League group stage to be sure of a place in the play-offs, and they did so, courtesy of goals from Angelino in the 44th minute and substitute Eldor Shomurodov in the 69th.
The teams
Roma boss Claudio Ranieri had his full squad to choose from for this game, a rare luxury at this stage of the season.
Mile Svilar was in goal. The back line of three consisted of Evan Ndicka, Mats Hummels and Gianluca Mancini. Leandro Paredes and Manu Kone paired up in the middle of the park, flanked by wing-backs Alexis Saelemaekers and Angelino. Further up, Lorenzo Pellegrini played just behind forwards Paulo Dybala and Artem Dovbyk.
Having just parted ways with Omar Marmoush, who now plays for Manchester City, Eintracht were without Elye Wahi, Krisztian Lisztes, Mehdi Loune, Oscar Hojlund, and Eric Ebimbe.
Eintracht head coach Dino Toppmoller arranged his men in a 3-4-2-1 shape. With Kevin Trapp between the posts, Arthur Theate, Robin Koch and Tuta formed the back line. Hugo Larsson and Ellyes Shkiri were tasked with the hard work in the middle of the park, with Ansgar Knauff on the left flank and Rasmus Kristensen, who spent 2023/24 at Roma, on the right. Fares Chaibi and Jean Matteo Bahoya were the pair closest to striker Hugo Ekitike.
Key moments
Eintracht entered the contest with determination and seemed to be establishing some level of control, but Roma quickly responded and pushed the visitors back. There was a hint of a problem for the Giallorossi as Saelemaekers picked up a yellow card in the sixth minute already, for stopping an Eintracht counterattack with a deliberate foul.
But Roma soon started threatening, and the first real chance came to Dovbyk in the 13th minute, but the striker was obviously surprised by the sharpness of Angelino’s low cross which found him at six yards, and he failed to get a proper shot off. Three minutes later, Saelemaekers narrowly missed the target from just outside the box.
It was Eintracht’s turn to cause problems at the other end at that point, and after Chaibi let one fly from range and over the bar, Larsson got on the end of an excellent cross and forced Svilar into a fine save.
But from that point on, it was all about Roma attacking and Eintracht trying to defend. Dybala won a free-kick a yard outside the box in the 28th minute and took it himself, hitting it high over the bar. The Argentinian forward took a good corner seven minutes later and Mancini rose highest, coming closest to scoring yet as his header bounced off the post. Hummels tried next, his header going straight at Trapp, and then the time had come for the deadlock to be broken.
A strong pressure from Roma resulted in a fine Mancini pass finding the run of Angelino on the edge of six yards, and the former RB Leipzig left-back hit it first-time. The shot picked up a double deflection, off Trapp and Tuta, and bounced into the net, and Roma went to the break with a deserved lead. The goal was given to Angelino, but it’s questionable if it would’ve gone in after the first deflection, had it not been for Tuta redirecting it in.
Eintracht had a great chance to draw back level immediately. Not a minute of the second half had gone when Ekitike broke one-on-one with Svilar and even managed to get past him, but the Roma goalkeeper recovered with great agility to prevent the Eintracht striker from hitting the back of the net. Eight minutes later, the visitors conducted a good team move and entered the Roma box, but they eventually overcomplicated the matter and enabled the home side to stay on top.
The game picked up pace in that period, with the ball moving quickly from one end to the other, and Roma boss Ranieri felt he needed to react to slow things down. Paredes and Saelemaekers made way for Bryan Cristante and Matias Soule. Eintracht coach Toppmoller obviously needed to change a few things as well, as his team gradually relinquished initiative. Mahmoud Dahoud and Can Uzun came on as more attack-minded alternatives to Larsson and Knauff.
Ranieri must’ve also noticed that Dovbyk was losing strength at that point, and he withdrew the Ukrainian target-man in favour of Shomurodov, who boasts greater mobility.
The changes produced better results for Roma. Soule did some great work on the ball in the 69th minute, keeping possession under strong pressure wide on the right, and it led to Shomurodov somehow squeezing the ball past Trapp to score the second goal for the Giallorossi. Eintracht defender Tuta, who had a “helping” hand in Roma’s first, was unconvincing on this occasion again.
Ranieri’s men succeeded in taking the sting out of the game for the remaining 20 minutes, though Soule did make a mistake in his own half which resulted in Uzun firing over the bar.
Final rankings
Roma’s victory was obviously of great importance. The Serie A side have thus managed to qualify for the play-offs, where they will face Porto away on February 13th, and then again at home a week later. But first, they have some important work to do domestically, facing Serie A leaders Napoli, AC Milan in the Coppa Italia quarterfinals, and Venezia.
As for Eintracht, this defeat will have hurt their pride but nothing more. They finished fifth and will skip the play-offs, and they await their outcomes and the subsequent draw, to determine their opponent in the round of 16. The teams they can face are Union SG, Ajax, PAOK, and Romanian side FCSB.
But at the moment, Toppmoller and his players will be fully focused on their upcoming Bundesliga clash with Wolfsburg on Sunday.
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