By Melody Gross 
Roma, led by Jose Mourinho, missed the opportunity to reach the podium in the Italian championship and placed itself in the qualifying zone for the Champions League after losing 1-0 in the derby against Lazio, in a match from the 27th round.
The two teams arrived at the Olympico after participating in the European Championships with matches abroad and with very different results, because Lazio dropped out of the Conference League and the Championship. Giallorossi It secured access to the quarter-finals of the European League.
For this match, Mourinho, who served the second game of suspension and was not on the bench, bet on Rui Patricio to start. Maurizio Sarri left Luis Maximiano on the bench.
Similar to what happened in the previous Roma match against Real Sociedad, the first half witnessed many interruptions in the rhythm, thanks to many stops and bickering between the players.
It was red in the stands and the spirits in the four lines were very warm (in the first half, there were 17 fouls), so the expulsion of Roger Ibanez was inevitable. And the center back got the first yellow card after three minutes and was sent off after nearly half an hour after another foul.
Dybala tried to shift the game to the left, Ibanez controlled poorly and left the ball to the mercy of Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, who was knocked out by the Brazilian when he counterattacked.
From here it was clear what kind of game would follow.
Roma lowered the lines and kept them empty until half-time, when Mourinho opted to move, removing Paulo Dybala and adding another defender, in this case Diego Llorente.
Even before returning to the changing rooms, a new tense moment. Nuno Santos, Mourinho’s assistant, “meet” Pedro Rodriguez, which created a huge confusion between the two benches and ended up expelling the Portuguese coach.
Even the strategy developed by the “private” led to the first minutes of the second half. Lazio found it very difficult to create chances and were only threatened by long-distance shots, mostly from Luis Alberto, but Patricio always answered in the affirmative.
However, in the 65th minute, a mistake was enough for the Sarri team to judge Roma. Zalewski failed to control the ball and left Zakani with an open path in the side lane. The attacker, when Patricio left, fired straight.
Immediately after the goal has been scored, the Giallorossi The scoring still took place, but the VAR ruled out the goal. After a free kick, Mancini headed Profidel to save, Smalling tried to reload and Casale put the ball into his own net. However, the English center was in an irregular situation.
Mourinho tried to revive the team, especially the offensive sector, and Rome still witnessed some quick attacks, but the numerical inferiority was clear in those moments, so there was no way to reach, at least, a draw.
Thus, Roma remains in fifth place with 47 points, while Lazio rose to second place with 52, 19 from leader Napoli. However, Sarri’s side could still outpace Benfica’s Champions League rivals Inter Milan, who are third (50 points) and face Juventus on Sunday.