Lazio president Claudio Lotito has increased the tension between his club and archrivals Roma by suggesting that Roma will falter towards the end of the season to miss Champions League qualification for next campaign. Roma are currently second in the table after being involved in a title race with Juventus for most of the season, but their poor form in recent weeks have allowed Antonio Conte’s men to open a 14 point lead with only a few matches remaining in the season. Their third successive title has been virtually sealed after the recent 1-0 defeat for Roma against Napoli.
This result meant that Roma have just two wins in the last five matches and it has allowed Napoli to close the gap on the second place. There are just three points behind Roma, but with a far greater momentum leading into the final few matches. This will lead to the downfall of Roma according to Lotito, whose team has not done themselves great this campaign. Lazio have been consistently slipping down the table since the turn of the year and they are currently eighth with only 38 points. They face a huge fight just to qualify for the Europa league.
Lotito also predicts that Juventus will win a third straight title with Napoli coming second.
“Juventus will win the title, Napoli will finish second. For third place, I don’t know. I don’t want to make predictions. Now, the gap (on Juventus) is fairly significant. We just have to keep on going and stay focused on reinforcing second place. It’s been a few years since Roma breathed in the air of European competition, only that of Serie A,” said Lotito. Roma have not been seen in the Champions League since the 2011 season when they were knocked out of the competition by Shakhtar Donetsk.