Roma drew with BATE 0-0 at the Stadio Olimpico on Wednesday evening in Group E of the Champions League, securing them a knockout place.
With the Giallorossi needing a win to assure themselves second place in Group E, it was the Belarusian side who started the better however.
Roma’s Radja Nainggolan did get his team back on track with a hopeful long-range strike, boosting the morale of the apparent nervous Italians and it looked as though Juan Iturbe would turn home a wonderful cross but failed to commit to the header.
Miralem Pjanic whipped in a delicious corner mid-way through the first-half which was headed back from Antonio Rudiger but some last-ditch defending from BATE thwarted Daniele De Rossi from breaking the deadlock.
The aforementioned Bosnian also struck a free-kick this time that was well saved by Sergey Chernik.
Edin Dzeko was gifted the perfect chance after only a minute into the second-half when he was play through one-on-one yet struck his chance directly at Chernik.
The sustained pressure from the Italian side continued, this time Alessandro Florenzi the man who was denied by Chernik’s knee from all of six-yards out.
As the game approached the final 20 minutes and both sides still in with a chance of qualification to the knockout round, Wojciech Szczesny made a truly incredible save from point-blank range from Mikhail Gordejchuk.
The game began to become stretched and Pjanic was again the man to be handed a chance, though the Bosnian had little to no conviction with the shot and was cleared off the line.
Somehow BATE couldn’t find the goalscoring touch they craved with 10 minutes remaining with Szezesny again making another palmed stop.
The result meant Roma qualified over Bayer Leverkusen due to their head-to-head record, with the draw for the next round on Monday.
