ROME :AS Roma secured their place in the Europa League playoffs with a 2-0 home win over German side Eintracht Frankfurt on Thursday, while the visitors still secured a top-eight position despite the loss.
Knowing that a win would guarantee their place in the knockout stages, Roma pressed forward with intensity and goals from Angelino and Eldor Shomurodov in each half sealed their advancement.
In the end, Roma secured a safe 15th-place finish, comfortably in the higher part of the playoff section, while Frankfurt concluded their league campaign in fifth.
Frankfurt entered the final round in second place, all but guaranteed a direct path to the round of 16 unless an unlikely sequence of results went against them.
Artem Dovbyk had a chance to give Roma the lead early on but his attempt from short range skimmed the bar, while Frankfurt came dangerously close just before the half-hour mark when a Hugo Larsson header forced Roma keeper Mile Svilar to make an acrobatic save.
Gianluca Mancini’s header came close to giving Roma the lead before the break but the attempt hit the woodwork.
An evenly played first half concluded with Roma breaking the deadlock a minute before the break as Angelino fired in a sharp-angled volley from a cross, the ball finding the net despite deflections off both Frankfurt’s keeper Kevin Trapp and a defender.
The break saw trouble in the stands with fireworks set off and supporters clashing, but stewards and police got it quickly under control, allowing the match to restart without delay.
Roma doubled their lead after 69 minutes when Shomurodov surged into the box and tapped the ball past the onrushing Trapp, sending it rolling into the empty net to seal their progression.
