A Rome derby on the penultimate weekend of the Serie A season could never be a low-stakes occasion. Scudetto wins come rarely in Italy’s capital city – Roma and Lazio have five between them – leaving neighbourly bragging rights as the next-most important prize on offer. It is an intense, bitter rivalry that has produced countless memorable moments – Francesco Totti taking selfies under the Curva and a cup-winning goal by Senad Lulic, for example – if also, sadly, many violent clashes between supporters.

It matters even more when either side has tangible objectives to play for, but as recently as late April that did not appear very likely. Roma were sixth – five points adrift of the Champions League places – and Lazio ninth. But then the Giallorossi got on a roll, just as Milan and Juventus started dropping points. A win in the derby could propel them into the top four, if either of those sides slipped up again.

Lazio’s own hopes of qualifying for Europe had been ended when they lost the Coppa Italia final to Inter on Wednesday. But misery loves company and denying Roma’s ambitions would be a worthy consolation. All of which made it more astonishing that, one day before the game, nobody seemed sure if their manager would show up.

Maurizio Sarri had warned after the cup defeat he might not. At the time it was unclear which day the derby would take place. A clash with the men’s singles and women’s doubles finals of the Italian Open tennis, taking place a few hundred metres outside the Stadio Olimpico, within the city’s grandiose Foro Italico sports complex, had thrown the Serie A schedule into chaos.

The derby was originally designated as a 12.30pm Sunday kick-off. But on Tuesday the Rome prefect announced it would be pushed back to the Monday, at 8.45pm. The local authority had concluded it would be too difficult to guarantee public safety with both events happening at once. Even Italy’s Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, became involved, insisting this was the “only viable solution”.

Such a short-notice rearrangement, however, would not only affect Roma and Lazio. The league’s rules require that any teams competing for the same targets during the final two rounds of a season must have their games kick-off simultaneously. Napoli, Juventus, Milan and Como were still fighting with Roma for those last two Champions League spots, so all their fixtures would need to be rescheduled.

A logistical nightmare, for travelling supporters above all. The league’s organising body – Lega Serie A – launched an urgent legal appeal against the postponement to the regional administrative court. The matter was still unresolved when Lazio played Inter in the Coppa Italia final, losing 2-0. Sarri, who has opposed all lunchtime kick-offs for about as long as he has coached in top-flight football, suggested he would boycott the derby if it reverted to the original schedule.

“If it’s on Monday, I’ll come,” he said. “If it’s Sunday at 12.30pm, I won’t … If I was the [Lazio] president [Claudio Lotito] I wouldn’t have the team show up either and we’ll take a point penalty. These teams are competing for the Champions League – worth €80m – and they’re going to play at 12.30pm? This isn’t football.”

The game would wind up being moved even earlier. The courts returned the issue to the league and the Rome prefect, telling them to sort it out themselves. On Thursday, it was agreed the derby – along with Como v Parma, Genoa v Milan, Juventus v Fiorentina, and Pisa v Napoli, would kick off on Sunday, at midday – that extra half hour apparently easing concerns about the policing of events in the capital.

There are more layers to this story, encompassing the booming popularity of tennis in Italy and breathtaking organisational inertia from Serie A’s organisers and local authorities in Rome. The clash has been foreseeable since the fixture list was published in June, how could it take until the week of the game to address it?

At some point, though, this column needs to move on to the football. Sarri did turn up, though Lazio’s supporters mostly did not – ultras staging yet another boycott in protest against Lotito’s ownership. Roma were the designated home team and their fans made the most of having the place to themselves, creating a boisterously one-sided atmosphere.

The game was predictably scrappy, high on commitment, but low on standout quality. Lazio thought they had taken the lead through Boulaye Dia midway through the first half, but he was well offside. Instead, the Roma centre-back Gianluca Mancini put his team in front before half-time with a header from Niccolò Pisilli’s corner.

He ran the length of the pitch, away from Lazio’s deserted Curva Nord, to celebrate with Roma’s ultras at the opposite end. A fan favourite, Mancini joined from Atalanta in 2019 and had won supporters over with his full-blooded commitment long before he scored the winner in another derby, in April 2024.

Now 30 years old, he has made 20 appearances for Italy, but still never played in the Champions League, having arrived in the summer after Roma’s last participation. That may finally be about to change.

Mancini sealed Roma’s 2-0 victory with another header, again from a corner, in the 66th minute. This time he appeared more confused than excited as the ball went in. “I couldn’t even believe I had scored again,” he said. “I didn’t know how to celebrate.”

By now the mood inside the Stadio Olimpico was transforming from cauldron to carnival, even as both teams had a player sent off for an on-field scuffle. Juventus were losing 1-0 at home to Fiorentina. Before long, word would come through that they had conceded again, Rolando Mandragora serving the killer blow.

As the full-time whistles went, Roma were up to fourth and on course for their first Champions League qualification in seven years. A scenario that seemed implausible less than a month ago, when their season appeared to be coming apart in an escalating power struggle between the Roma manager, Gian Piero Gasperini, and his predecessor, Claudio Ranieri, still serving as senior adviser to the club’s owners.

But then Ranieri left and Roma, after a miserable spring, were back on track. They have beaten Bologna, Fiorentina, Parma and Lazio in consecutive games – their longest winning run in Serie A this season. One more victory, away to relegated Verona, would guarantee them a place in the top four.

They savoured the moment, lingering in the sunshine. Gasperini was in the middle of it, grinning, hugging and shoving players under the Curva to receive the adulation they merited. For some, including Paulo Dybala, who provided the assist for the second goal, this could have been a final home game.

Gasperini was not a universally popular appointment last summer, having needled Roma supporters during his almost decade-long stint at Atalanta. He said on Sunday that, when he accepted the job, he had given himself three years to start winning things. “I knew I was the least well-suited candidate to create a bond with the people here. I came to make a team play football and I think I’ve been appreciated for that.

“The most important thing for me, beyond the result, is having earned that credibility with the fans. That’s worth more than a Scudetto.”