Roma thrash Crotone to keep faint Europa qualification hopes alive

AS Roma captain Lorenzo Pellegrini and Borja Mayoral both struck twice to help keep their team's faint hopes of qualifying for next season's Europa League alive with the 5-0 thrashing of bottom side Crotone in Serie A on Sunday.

With the Champions League spots out of reach for Roma this season, a sixth-place finish would secure Europa League football in 2021-22 but they again looked laboured as they could not break down already relegated Crotone in the Stadio Olimpico.

However, Roma stepped it up a gear in the second half, with Mayoral giving them the lead two minutes after the break, before two well-taken goals from Pellegrini set Paulo Fonseca's side on course for victory.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan added another 12 minutes from time before Mayoral drilled home his second to complete the rout in stoppage time as Roma moved up to seventh on 58 points with three matches left, six behind sixth-placed Lazio who have a game in hand.