Roma strengthened its position in fifth place to qualify for the Champions League in its updated version next season after defeating Udinese 2-1 in the match, which completed the remaining 18 minutes of it on Thursday after it was suspended on the 14th of this month in the Italian Football League.
The match was stopped in the 72nd minute after the Ivory Coast player, Ivan Ndika, collapsed and was subsequently taken to the hospital, where it was feared that he had suffered a heart attack.
The player, who participated in 19 league matches this season, spent that night under observation before returning to Roma, and tests showed no signs of heart problems.
Roma announced on Tuesday that Ndika had received the green light to return to training.
The match was tied at 1-1 before it was stopped, after Argentine Roberto Pereira opened the scoring for Udinese, before Belgian Romelu Lukaku equalized the score (64).
While the match was headed to a draw with the same score after completing the remaining 18 minutes, Brian Christante was able to score a deadly goal that gave Roma the three points (90+5).
Roma strengthened its position in fifth place with 58 points, four points behind fourth-placed Bologna, which it defeated 3-1 at home on Monday, but the capital team advanced with the same number of points over sixth-placed Atalanta, except that the latter has one less game.
Italy was guaranteed to occupy one of the first or second places in the classification approved by the European Football Association (UEFA), and to obtain five seats in the updated Champions League competition next season (2024-2025), that is, one seat more than the current season.
For its part, Udinese remains threatened with relegation, as it occupies seventeenth place with 28 points, but equally with Frosinone, eighteenth in the relegation zone.