Roma move away from Napoli

Roma put six points between themselves and third-placed Napoli on Saturday night thanks to a 2-0 win at Chievo.

Roma put six points between themselves and third-placed Napoli on Saturday night thanks to a 2-0 win at Chievo. Gervinho and Mattia Destro provided the goals for Rudi Garcia's men, both in the first half, as the Giallorossi moved to within 11 points of league leaders Juventus, having now played the same amount of games. More importantly, though, they have put some daylight between themselves and Napoli in the hunt for Italy's second automatic qualifying berth for the Champions League, which is their more realistic aim for the remainder of the season. Chievo, in need of points to move away from the relegation zone, did not show much attacking intent early on and it was hard to distinguish who was actually the home team. They waited for Roma to attack them in the hope of catching them on the counter-attack, but that chance simply did not present itself. Instead, Roma pressed without showing any weaknesses at the back, and when they got serious for the first time, they took the lead. Bostjan Cesar got it all wrong as he tried to head Miralem Pjanic's lofted ball back to his own goalkeeper and Gervinho stole in to beat Michael Agazzi. It was effective from the Giallorossi, who had waited patiently for their chance before punishing the first mistake the Chievo defence made. Radja Nainggolan and Francesco Totti both sent shots wide of the target before Rodrigo Taddei tried his luck, also missing by several yards. Another mistake, this time from Dario Dainelli, put Destro through on goal, but after taking the ball wide of Agazzi, he cut his shot into the side-netting. Roma gradually increased the pressure until they got a second goal with Destro making no mistake when faced with Agazzi for the second time. He picked up Taddei's pass before sending his low shot past the Chievo goalkeeper. There was no reaction from Chievo in the second half either as Roma held on to their lead, rarely threatening to add to it. They continued to wait for Chievo to commit themselves, or make mistakes, and Gervinho did almost add a third with a close-range header which Agazzi pushed away instinctively. There was no need for a third goal, though, as Roma held on comfortably for three points which reinforce their second spot in Serie A.