A bombastic fixture in the Europa League Round of 16 is on the menu as Roma welcome European newbies Brighton at the Stadio Olimpico.
Roma will hope to command proceedings tomorrow as they have been in stellar form under new manager Daniele De Rossi. The hosts will hope to take advantage of the 12th man and consolidate a good first-leg lead to avoid an upset in the away leg. Goals from Lorenzo Pellegrini, Romelu Lukaku, Paulo Dybala and Leandro Paredes secured a thrilling 4-1 victory over Monza in their previous outing and the win extended their unbeaten streak to five games in a row across all competitions. The Giallorossi had to fight tooth and nail in the Europa League playoffs to get through to the last-16. A first-leg 1-1 draw versus Feyenoord was followed up with a similar result in the second leg and both teams had to settle the affair in the penalty shootout. Lukaku gave Roma fans a moment of panic with his missed strike but goalkeeper Mile Svilar made up for him as he saved two of the Dutch side’s spot-kicks to help the Italians progress to the next round.
Meanwhile, Brighton will play for pride and being in European competition is already a massive achievement for them. All credits go to manager Roberto De Zerbi who took the reins at the club after the departure of Graham Potter to Chelsea as the Italian manager had a sensational debut season with The Seagulls last campaign. This is the first time they are playing in Europe and they have announced themselves perfectly by scoring double the goals they conceded in the group stages to finish at the top of their group. Brighton will hope to come away with a draw at the Olimpico to set up a good opportunity for them to progress when they play at home in the return leg.
Here are the predicted line-ups for the match:
Roma (4-3-3): Svilar; Celik, Mancini, Ndicka, Spinazzola; Cristante, Paredes, Pellegrini; Dybala, Lukaku, El Shaarawy.
Brighton (3-4-2-1): Steele; Igor, Dunk, van Hecke; Lamptey, Gilmour, Gross, Estupinan; Buonanotte, Enciso; Ferguson.
Trambak Bhattacherjee | GIFN
