Wednesday Champions League – AS Roma vs Liverpool Preview

May 2, 2018 19:45 – Stadio Olimpico

Recent Form (All Competitions)

AS Roma: DWWLW

Liverpool: WWDWD

Roma will have to complete another remarkable comeback if they are to recover from their tactical disaster class against Liverpool in the first leg.

The highs of the Barcelona victory were quickly erased as Liverpool stormed into a five goal advantage before two late goals gave Roma the slenderest of hopes of making the final in Kiev.

It was a case of the return of the ex as Mo Salah scored twice and had a hand in another goal as Eusabio Di Francesco went with a bold formation that unfortunately for fans of the Giallorossi did not quite work out. It was symptomatic of Roma’s away form in the Champions League this season which has produced a solitary win but no one predicted such a poor result.

In the quarter-finals Roma made one of the best comebacks in the history of the Champions League, and lightening will have to strike twice if they are to progress. If Di Francesco can set his team up to keep Messi and company quiet, there is always hope he can do it again.

A morale-boosting league win over Chievo last weekend in which they scored four goals with little squad rotation maybe cause for cautious optimism, but in truth it is a massive ask and a scenario that should never have happened.

Liverpool failed to score against Stoke in their league fixture this past weekend as The Potters showed how to defend against the front three of Liverpool. The Reds have three of the top five goal scorers in this seasons’ Champions League in Mo Salah,  Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino and all three got on the scoresheet in the first leg exploiting the visitors’ high line time and again.

Jurgen Klopp’s men have scored in every way game in this season’s Champions League and handed out a five goal demolition of Porto in the round of 16. A balance between offensive and defensive has been found with Roma and Sevilla the only two teams to score more than once in a game against them.

It will be a balancing act for Klopp, aware of the goal threat that Roma carry but he is not the type to sit back for the duration of the game. Another consideration is that The Reds have yet to mathematically qualify for next year’s competition and have a game against Chelsea next weekend, so team selection will be interesting.

Realistically an away goal scored early and Klopp can relax but he will know that Roma will not be as bad as the first leg and his team will need a strong start to the game.

Prediction

There should be goals in this game so a home win with over 2.5 goals and Liverpool progressing to Kiev looks like the best bet.

For the best Champions League betting experience, we recommend Betfair.

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