Roma are hoping to produce another miraculous fightback when they face Premier League side Liverpool at the Olympic Stadium on Wednesday in the second leg of their UEFA Champions League semi-finals tie. The first leg was won by Liverpool quite comfortably, but Roma scored two away goals that give them hope of turning things around. The first leg ended 5-2 as Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino scored two goals apiece, Mohamed Salah also scored for the Reds, while Edin Dzeko and Diego Perotti reduced the arrears for Roma during the final ten minutes of the match.
Roma can count themselves very lucky with the first-leg result, Liverpool looked capable of demolishing the Italian side and they nearly did, but the two goals that they scored in the final minutes of the match at Anfield Road could make a very big difference. At the weekend Roma crushed Chievo 4-1 to consolidate their third place in Serie A, and head coach Eusebio Di Francesco could not afford to rest too many of his first-team regulars as the fight for the top four remains fierce in the Italian top flight. Rick Karsdorp and Gregoire Defrel remain the only injury concerns for the home side.
Liverpool should be very confident ahead of the second leg, they dominated Roma quite clearly last week and really made the Italians suffer for about eighty of the ninety minutes of that match. The result was quite unfortunate for the Reds considering how the match went, but they should be wary of Roma because the Italians did pull off a 3-0 fightback against Barcelona in the previous round. Liverpool got held to a goalless draw by Stoke last weekend in the Premier League, even though the whole team did their best to make Mohamed Salah score another goal. Adam Lallana, Joel Matip, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Emre Can are injured for the away side.
Probable line-ups:
Roma: Alisson - Florenzi, Fazio, Manolas, Kolarov - Strootman, De Rossi, Nainggolan - Under, Dzeko, Perotti
Liverpool: Karius - Alexander-Arnold, Lovren, Van Dijk, Robertson - Wijnaldum, Henderson, Milner - Salah, Firmino, Mane
My prediction: 2-2 draw.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
Roma win - 2.54
Draw - 4.00
Liverpool win - 2.62
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Comments (1)
sharpe
06/01/18, 02:06:23 PM
After the showdown in the first leg and the 5-2 Liverpool win it was hard to expect Roma would create another miracle as what they did against Barcelona in the previous...
After the showdown in the first leg and the 5-2 Liverpool win it was hard to expect Roma would create another miracle as what they did against Barcelona in the previous round. In the end it finished 4-2 but Liverpool were always in control after an early Mane goal so the result had more of a value for Roma's players and clubs honour really.
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