Make no mistake about it, Roma are the underdogs in their Champions League semi-final clash with Liverpool. It was easy to see from watching Jurgen Klopp’s men versus Manchester City in the previous round of the competition just how much belief came from having won the highly-coveted trophy five times in the past, while the Giallorossi have only played (and lost) in two finals.
One of those was in 1984 versus Liverpool, a game that was eventually decided on penalties. Supporters of the Italian side will hope that it won’t have to come to that this time around, and are truly feeling the excitement as tickets for both legs sold out in a flash. However, while Liverpool may be expected to advance through to the final on this occasion, it will be important that Jurgen Klopp and his players avoid becoming complacent.
Roma brilliantly showed the power of belief and determination as they overturned a 4-1 deficit to Barcelona in a 3-0 home leg win versus the Catalan giants, and this team will undoubtedly be ready to upset the apple cart once again here. After that first match at Camp Nou, Eusebio Di Francesco’s side went down 2-0 at home to Fiorentina, forcing the boss to reevaluate his plan for the second leg.
The Coach revealed that he stayed awake until 5am after the loss to the Viola, coming up with a new 3-4-1-2 formation that outfoxed Ernesto Valverde’s Barca in spectacular style. This time around, the intelligent boss will have studied once again how to beat Liverpool, making for an extremely interesting semi-final clash.
“They’re not very solid in defence, but Liverpool are the kind of team where if they score six and concede three, they’re happy,” said EDF on his next opponents Liverpool. “We start out by defending as a team and then work on the attacking movements.
“Liverpool are a side of great quality. The first leg is away from home and that can be an advantage, but also makes it very difficult to prepare tactically. I know the starting XI, it’s all planned, but I won’t tell you… I can only say that Edin Dzeko will play.”
A 3-0 win away to a usually hard to break down SPAL side on Saturday saw the Coach play a 4-3-2-1 system, a match which allowed the Giallorossi take three points whilst still resting players. Patrik Schick came in for Edin Dzeko up front, the talented Czech youngster firing in the third goal, his first in Serie A since arriving in the capital from Sampdoria this summer.
Roma’s last few games have proved that Di Francesco – at first accused of being too rigid with his 4-3-3 formation – can be tactically flexible and may well spring a surprise on his coaching counterpart Klopp. Liverpool of course have the former Giallorossi winger Mohamed Salah for their opponent to contend with, the Egyptian having more than doubled his Serie A tally from last year (15) with 31 Premier league goals for the Reds so far.
Salah is still well-liked by his former team-mates but Kostas Manolas – the defender who scored the final goal in the dramatic comeback versus Barcelona – pointed out to the winger that there would be no love lost between them during the match.
“Kostas Manolas talks to Salah regularly,” Bruno Peres told reporters after the win over SPAL. “We warned him not to try anything, or he’s getting beaten up! In fact, Kostas won’t talk to him for a while, so if he needs to give him a kicking, he won’t feel bad about it. Afterwards, they can be friends again!”
Barcelona would certainly testify to the fact that Liverpool must not rest on their laurels for even a minute versus this determined Roma side, and it is to be hoped that these two sides provide some more thrills for neutrals no matter what the result.
