Roma's Champions League Ambitions Rise Amid Juventus and Milan's Struggles
Roma head to Parma on Sunday with something they haven’t had for years: a clear, genuine sightline back to the Champions League – and two giants wobbling in front of them.
A month ago, that sounded fanciful. Inter Milan had just torn them apart, the kind of beating that usually kills off top-four dreams and starts the autopsy. Instead, it lit a fire.
Ten points from four matches have dragged Roma to within a single point of fourth-placed Juventus. AC Milan, once thinking about the title after their derby win over Inter, now sit just two points further ahead in third. The table, suddenly, is tight enough to feel.
“We're going well, but we know that we cannot make any mistakes if we're going to have any chance of making the Champions League,” Gian Piero Gasperini warned after last weekend’s demolition of Fiorentina. “We've got three matches that we have to get right and hope that others don't.”
It’s blunt, and it’s accurate. Roma have left themselves no margin for error. But they’ve also found form at precisely the moment when the teams they’re chasing have started to creak.
Gasperini Wins the Power Struggle
Roma’s surge has done more than revive a season. It has settled a power struggle.
Gasperini’s job looked shaky not long ago, his authority openly challenged by Claudio Ranieri, the local hero installed as senior advisor to the club’s American owners. The tension between the two men, long simmering, finally spilled into public just before Roma thumped Pisa 3-0. That win proved more than a scoreline; it marked the start of this current run and the beginning of the end for Ranieri.
Two weeks ago, the Friedkin family made their choice. Ranieri was dismissed from his advisory role. Gasperini stayed. The message was unmistakable: this is his project now.
It was a bold call. Ranieri is Roma, a lifelong fan and a beloved figure. Yet the supporters have largely stayed on Gasperini’s side. They recognise the football, the aggression, the structure – it echoes his nine outstanding years at Atalanta. The board recognise something else: a coach who might drag them back into the Champions League after seven long years away.
Roma have not appeared in Europe’s top competition since Porto knocked them out in the last 16. Three games stand between them and a return. The path is there; it is just littered with traps.
A Favour from Milan’s Collapse
One of those traps is not Milan’s form. That has already collapsed.
Since beating Inter two months ago and briefly reopening the title race, Massimiliano Allegri’s side have taken just seven points. They have scored once in five league matches. A team that looked upward now stares nervously over its shoulder, with Roma closing fast and Como only three points off the top four as well.
Milan’s problems deepen with Luka Modric’s injury. The midfield metronome fractured his cheekbone and will miss the rest of the season. His absence was obvious in the flat, disjointed display at Sassuolo last weekend.
On Sunday night, Atalanta arrive at San Siro. Milan must somehow rediscover fluency without their lynchpin, at the very moment when Roma are hunting them down and every misstep feels fatal.
A Run-In That Looks Kind – But Isn’t
On paper, Roma’s schedule invites optimism. Parma have nothing to play for. Verona, the final opponent, are already relegated. Those are the sort of fixtures coaches circle in quiet moments and label “must-win”.
But Roma live in a city where nothing is ever that simple.
Between those two matches sits the Rome derby. Lazio may have little tangible left to chase, but they never need extra motivation to hurt their neighbours. A single bad night there could puncture Roma’s momentum and their confidence in one swing.
Gasperini knows it. So do his players. Every game now carries a double weight: points on the table and pressure on the teams ahead of them.
Malen, the Cutting Edge
At the heart of Roma’s revival is a January loan that has turned into a revelation.
Donyell Malen arrived from Aston Villa in mid-season and has since become the face of Gasperini’s new-look attack. Twelve goals later, he is the player opponents fear most and the one Roma look for whenever the game stretches.
Malen doesn’t just finish. He drives. He runs at defenders, opens lanes, and gives Roma the vertical thrust that defined Gasperini’s best Atalanta sides under Ademola Lookman and Alejandro Gomez. The system is familiar; the protagonist has changed.
In a tight race, individuals matter. Malen has become Roma’s difference-maker.
Three Matches, One Prize
So the equation is stark. Three games to play. One point to make up on Juventus. Two on Milan. A fanbase desperate to hear the Champions League anthem again. A coach who has just won the biggest internal battle of his Roma tenure.
Parma away. Lazio in the derby. Verona at the end.
Roma have given themselves a chance that looked dead a month ago. Now comes the question that will define their season: can they finish the job while two giants stumble in front of them?
