Miralem Pjanic strike hands Roma vital win over Napoli in quest for Champions League place

Miralem Pjanic celebrates scoring aginast Napoli on April 4. Riccardo Antimiani / EPA

A first-half strike from Miralem Pjanic earned Roma a precious 1-0 win over Napoli to boost the capital side’s Champions League qualifying hopes on Saturday.

Rome remain in second place but have closed the gap – perhaps temporarily – on leaders Juventus to 11 points and pulled four points ahead of Lazio, their closest rivals for the second automatic Champions League qualifying spot.

Champions Juventus host Empoli in Sunday’s late game while Lazio are away to Cagliari later in the day.

A lengthy winless run which virtually ended Roma’s title hopes came to an end two weeks ago when Daniele De Rossi struck to seal the points away to Cesena.

Rudi Garcia’s men made it two wins on the trot thanks to Pjanic’s 25th minute strike, although the hosts had ‘keeper Morgan De Sanctis to thank for a string of fine saves in both halves.

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Garcia left Francesco Totti out of his matchday squad for the ‘Derby of the Sun’, as the fixture is commonly known, and on the face of a determined all-round performance the hosts did not miss their iconic captain.

Pjanic came closest to breaking the deadlock in the early stages with a free kick which flew just past Mariano Andujar’s far post but the Bosnian made no mistake five minutes later as Roma built on their momentum.

Pjanic was somehow left unmarked next to the penalty spot when he ran in to slot past Andujar following a nice combination of passes betweeen Juan Iturbe and Alessandro Florenzi.

At the other end De Sanctis was forced out of his goal to close down Jonathan De Guzman, the ‘keeper forced to slide tackle the Dutchman in a bid to clear for a throw-in.

Napoli’s chances in the opening half were few and far between but they spurned a great chance to level when Gonzalo Higuain cut back for De Guzman after De Sanctis had been lured out of his goal again.

The Dutchman’s strike was closed down by Kostas Manolas, who slid in to block with his his legs although replays suggested the ball also came off the defender’s arm.

On the counter-attack, Adem Ljajic broke free on the left but despite Pjanic and Iturbe arriving late into the area, the Serbian opted to fire over from a tight angle.

Napoli proved far more enterprising in the second half with Dries Mertens particularly lively throughout.

De Sanctis got down well to block a side-footed chip from the Belgian midfielder amid a throng of Roma players and the ‘keeper had to look sharp minutes later to block Mertens’ shot from a tight angle after it had deflected off De Rossi as he slid in to block.

Rafael Benitez replaced Jose Callejon with Manolo Gabbiadini just as Napoli were beginning to gain momentum and the Italy striker was unlucky with a snap shot after De Guzman’s chip into the area that saw an acrobatic De Sanctis tip over.

In the dying minutes Iturbe spurned a great chance to put the match beyond reach after he was sent through by Victor Ibarbo’s smart chip. After rounding his marker, the Argentinian fired into the side netting.

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