Roma Vs Feyenoord preview
Watch Roma Vs Feyenoord preview, as Roma and Feyenoord have a meeting in the second leg of the quarter finals in the Europa league as stadio Olimpico at today meetings.
With the first leg win with 1-0 at De Kuip, Feyenoord took a step towards the semifinals, where they lost in the last year’s Europa league. Jose Mourinho’s men had a third straight serie A game without a win in the weekend, and can be tough customers on home soil.
Almost everything that could go wrong did go wrong for Roma in last Thursday’s first leg, as not only did captain Lorenzo Pellegrini miss a first-half penalty, before Mats Wieffer drove home a powerful winner for Feyenoord, but forward duo Paulo Dybala and Tammy Abraham were both forced off with injuries.
Nonetheless, the Eternal City side enjoyed a successful return to Serie A duty on Sunday, when Pellegrini redeemed himself by scoring the second goal in a 3-0 win over Udinese, a game in which Edoardo Bove converted the rebound after Bryan Cristante took his turn to miss from the spot; meaning two Romans among a multinational squad had both found the net.
Though it has not always been a joy to watch, Mourinho’s pragmatic approach has certainly helped the Giallorossi graft their way to within touching distance of a long-awaited Champions League return.
They have now won their last three Serie A games without shipping a single goal, strengthening their grip on third place in the process, and a total of nine victories without conceding in 2023 is a record equalled only by champions-in-waiting Napoli.
Generally tough to beat at home, Roma’s run of 20 European games unbeaten at Stadio Olimpico was only ended with a group-stage defeat against Real Betis, and they also enter Thursday’s contest having progressed from each of their last three ties when losing the first leg by one goal – including in this season’s playoff round against RB Salzburg.
UEFA Cup runners-up in 1991, Roma are yet to win either the Europa League or its predecessor and are now making only their second appearance in the current competition’s quarter-finals, but last year’s Conference League triumph has surely whetted their appetite to go further.
Team News and Injury
Though Jose Mourinho has been troubled by the fitness of his first-choice forwards, it is expected that Paulo Dybala – Roma’s joint-top Europa League scorer, on three goals – will return in time to feature on Thursday.
Tammy Abraham seems to have shrugged off a shoulder injury suffered in Rotterdam, but Ola Solbakken and ex-Feyenoord man Rick Karsdorp remain unavailable.
Georginio Wijnaldum began his professional career with Thursday’s visitors, scoring 25 goals in 135 appearances for the club between 2007 and 2011, and will seek promotion to the starting XI after being consigned to a second-half cameo at De Kuip.
After being rested at the weekend, Nemanja Matic and Roger Ibanez should return to the lineup, with Diego Llorente and Stephan El Shaarawy among those dropping out.
Feyenoord, meanwhile, welcomed back first-choice goalkeeper Justin Bijlow from a wrist injury for the first leg and he will start again in Rome.
Arne Slot’s midfield trio will be led by captain Orkun Kokcu, and the only significant dilemma for the Dutch league leaders comes on their right flank, where Alireza Jahanbakhsh and Igor Paixao vie for selection – the former started against Roma last week; the latter was picked on Sunday.
Roma Vs Feyenoord Head-to-head stats
The two teams will meet for the fifth time on Thursday, with all meetings taking place in UEFA-affiliated competitions. They have met thrice in the Europa League and once in the Conference League.
Roma have the better record in these meetings with two wins to their name. Feyenoord recorded their first win against the hosts last week and one meeting has ended in a draw.
The hosts have won four of their five home games in the Europa League this season, keeping clean sheets in their last two games in that period.
Feyenoord are winless in their away games in the competition, suffering two defeats in four games.
The hosts have kept clean sheets in four of their last six games in all competitions while also failing to score in three games in that period.
Roma have scored three goals apiece in their last three home games while the visitors have scored three goals apiece in their last three away games.
Roma Vs Feyenoord Prediction
Recent masters of winning without conceding, Roma will fancy their chances of cancelling out their deficit at a sold-out Stadio Olimpico, but overall victory could ultimately prove beyond them.
With a talented squad and a winning mentality, it could instead be Feyenoord who will face either Bayer Leverkusen or Union Saint-Gilloise in next month’s semi-finals.
