Football
2015-16 UEFA Champions League, Group Stage
ROMA 
0
FT
 BATE
0
PA Sport 8y

Roma go through to Champions League knockouts after BATE draw

Roma squeezed through to the Champions League last 16 after being held to a 0-0 draw at home by BATE Borisov in their final Group E game.

A win would have guaranteed the Italians a place in the next round along with already-qualified Barcelona, but Rudi Garcia's men were unable to make the most of the string of chances they created, while it took some heroics from Wojciech Szczesny to keep BATE at bay.

In the end, Roma were relieved that Bayer Leverkusen had drawn their home clash with Barcelona 1-1.

Both Roma and Leverkusen finished the group with just six points each, and the former finished in second above the latter due to having the edge on head-to-head record.

BATE's dreams of qualification have ended with them finishing fourth on five points.

Roma dominated possession from the off and made their first couple of attempts on goal through Radja Nainggolan, with one being gathered comfortably by Syarhey Chernik and the other flying over.

The hosts went closer just before the half-hour when Miralem Pjanic curled a free-kick goalwards and Chernik got across to push it away.

Pjanic then shot wide while challenged by Aleksandr Hleb, Roma claims for a penalty being waved away by referee Martin Atkinson.

Nainggolan sent another shot straight to Chernik towards the end of the first half, while Maksim Zhavnerchik and Filip Mladenovic put ambitious efforts at the other end into the stand.

Roma looked to step things up after the interval and after having a shot saved, Edin Dzeko carved out space for another with a great turn in the box but could not finish.

Chernik then came out to deflect an Alessandro Florenzi effort across goal and wide and Antonio Rudiger missed with a header.

BATE had created next to nothing going forward, but they remained in with a shout of qualifying themselves and almost snatched a goal in the 68th minute through Mikhail Gordeichuk only for Szczesny to make a fine point-blank save.

Pjanic subsequently saw a shot cleared off the line by Nemanja Milunovic before Szczesny then rescued his team again, parrying Mladenovic's close-range effort, with Ihar Stasevich's follow-up attempt being blocked by one of his own teammates.

^ Back to Top ^