Opinion: Why Champions League qualification matters so much

The curse is that disappointing results can linger in heads and affect performances the following match; the blessing is that the following match often happens so quickly anyway that teams have no choice but to move on as soon as possible.

For Roma, that means quickly changing gears to the pivotal match against BATE Borisov in the Champions’ League on Wednesday.

The essence of the match? It’s simple: no matter what – no matter the disappointment of that injury-time equalising penalty against Torino, or the loss against Barcelona in the prior European match, or whatever Bayer Leverkusen might manage elsewhere in the group – the team’s fate lies in the hands of just 14 men: the 11 who start the game and the 3 that might enter as substitutes.

Qualification to the knockout rounds would show demonstrable progress and proof that the project at the club is on an upward trajectory. It would bolster the side psychologically in the league, not only before a crucial match against Napoli next weekend, but quite possibly for the rest of the season.

Champions’ League matches don’t resume until February – a lengthy period of time, then, where the team can just focus on Serie A and recovering some much needed faces. By the time the Round of 16 comes about, Roma could be a fully fit team, featuring Francesco Totti, Mohamed Salah, Gervinho and Kevin Strootman will be further down his road to recovery – and reintegrating those difference-makers could see the side ready to challenge any team, no matter the draw.

It’s fitting that the match is at the Stadio Olimpico; Romanisti have ravenously awaited a return to knock-out Champion’s League football. The last time the side managed it was back in the 2010-2011 season and quite a bit was different those four short seasons ago, when everything was on the cusp of change.

Rosella Sensi was the President but just days away from selling the club to a consortium led by Thomas Di Benedetto. Coach Claudio Ranieri was relieved of his duties and replaced by legendary striker Vincenzo Montella between the two legs of the quarter finals. The team finished second the season before but ended up sixth in the league by May.

The adversary back then was a Shakhtar Donetsk side that had built a fortress at their home stadium, featuring the likes of Douglas Costa (now so potent at Bayern Munich), Luiz Adriano (currently at Milan), and Willian (Chelsea’s free-kick specialist). They did the double home and away over Ranieri and then Montella’s men, knocking the club out of Europe’s top-flight competition.

Even with all the change in the air, it was impossible to predict that Roma would wait at least four years before the chance to make it to the knock-outs would return again. The course for the club has risen higher and higher, from sixth and seventh placed finishes to consecutive second-placed standings. Last year, the opportunity was there for the taking, but a Manchester City side that had previously suffered from European naivety were finally able to pull together a result when it mattered most.

Now Roma, on the brink of finally returning, may have learned a lesson from Pellegrini’s men. This time, it’s not the mighty wealth of one of England’s powerhouses that stands between them and the pursuit of glory; it’s the plucky Belarusian side that lost to both Leverkusen and Barcelona away in Group E.

The team are just one result away from a return to the knockout rounds of the Champions’ League – and the prestige, the money, and implications that come along with qualification.