Roma go to Hellas Verona on Friday knowing exactly what is at stake: a win will guarantee them a place in next season’s Champions League. After the 37th match day, Roma are tied on points for third place with A.C. Milan, and their final Serie A game now carries the weight of an entire season.
For Roma, the timing is stark. They have not played in the Champions League for eight years, and the club’s recent revival has been built on a spring run of results that kept them alive at the top end of the table. They beat Fiorentina and Parma by emphatic margins and took points with striking consistency when others were wobbling.
That surge has been shaped by Manu Koné, who has quickly become the heart of Roma’s midfield since arriving and looking immediately like a star. Koné said this week, “I know I can enter Roma’s history books,” a line that fits a player who has become central to the team’s best stretch of the campaign. It also reflects how quickly he has moved from new signing to one of the squad’s most valuable pieces, especially with Financial Fair Play constraints tightening around the club.
Roma’s task, though, is not a simple one. They have lost three of their last five trips to the Bentegodi, including a 3-2 defeat there in 2024. Verona, meanwhile, are staring relegation in the face and have shown they can still be difficult to handle, frustrating both Juventus and Inter in recent weeks. That gives the match an edge that goes beyond the table: one side is trying to finish a chase that has lasted for years, the other is trying to keep its season alive one more night.
The backdrop makes the stakes even clearer. Roma have already won the inaugural Europa Conference League, but the club’s bigger European ambitions have been on pause for too long. Victory in Verona would end that wait and send them back into the Champions League, while any slip would leave them exposed on the final day’s margins.
That is what gives Friday’s game its force. Roma have spent the spring building toward this moment, and Koné’s arrival has helped turn them into a side that believes it can finish the job. Now they have to do it at a ground where they have stumbled before, against a team with survival on the line and nothing to lose.
For Roma, the equation is simple: beat Verona, and the eight-year wait is over.
