Zinedine Zidane will experience his first Champions League as head coach on Wednesday night when Real Madrid take on Roma at the Stadio Olimpico. The first leg of the last-sixteen tie will give a good indication of who will qualify as Real Madrid will surely be looking to get on the score sheet and make their home leg easier. The two teams have met in the Champions League on eight previous occasions, Real Madrid won four of them while Roma grabbed three wins. However, the most recent success for the Italians was back in 2008. On the other hand, Real Madrid have not won any of their last eight away matches against Italian sides.
Roma have been unable to reach the knockout stages of the Champions League since 2011, and back then they were thrashed 6-2 on aggregate by Shakhtar Donetsk. The last time they made the quarter-finals was in 2008. Back then their head coach was Luciano Spalletti, who has now just returned to the club after the sacking of Rudi Garcia. The new boss guided the team to a good patch of form, with just one loss in the last six matches and with consecutive wins in the last four. Veterans Francesco Totti and Daniele De Rossi should be ready to play despite recent fitness concerns.
Zinedine Zidane has won the Champions League as a player and has also won it as an assistant to Carlo Ancelotti two seasons ago. Now he is in charge and surely hoping to add some more European glory to his CV. Since taking over the club in January he has won five matches and drawn one, scoring 23 goals in the process. Their away form is a worry though as they have won just one of their last five matches on the road. They are still unbeaten in the Champions League since the start of the season. Gareth Bale is still out with a calf injury, but Marcelo could make his return after missing last weekend's match. Pepe will most likely miss out with a foot injury.
Probable line-ups:
Roma: Szczesny - Florenzi, Manolas, Rudiger, Digne - Nainggolan, Vainqueur, Salah, De Rossi - Pjanic - Dzeko
Real Madrid: Navas - Danilo, Varane, Ramos, Marcelo - Modric, Kroos, Isco - James, Benzema, Ronaldo
My prediction: Real Madrid to win 2-0.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
Roma win - 4.50 Draw - 3.90 Real Madrid win - 1.83
sharpe
8 years ago
Roma have played in a group with Barcelona in this edition of the CL and they were far away from the Spanish grand class so it was expected to be quite similar in their clash against Real. Although Real Madrid is not in their best form and there is a big issues and uncertainties with the future of some of the players and...
Roma have played in a group with Barcelona in this edition of the CL and they were far away from the Spanish grand class so it was expected to be quite similar in their clash against Real. Although Real Madrid is not in their best form and there is a big issues and uncertainties with the future of some of the players and the coach they are still a lot better side than Roma which was obvious during the two games.
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milo?.sekuli?
8 years ago
Although there are rumors that the bad chemistry is between players of Real Madrid, that Ronaldo does not talk to Bale, Benzema etc, Real Madrid's victory we shouldn't be called into question. They are much better team , plus Ronaldo at the last press-conference looked furious , it looks like he's jealous of Messi's penalty,and...
Although there are rumors that the bad chemistry is between players of Real Madrid, that Ronaldo does not talk to Bale, Benzema etc, Real Madrid's victory we shouldn't be called into question. They are much better team , plus Ronaldo at the last press-conference looked furious , it looks like he's jealous of Messi's penalty,and because of that, I think tonight he will break Roma al by himself .
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