Roma face one of their biggest battles of the season so far when they take on Juventus away in the Coppa Italia on Wednesday night.
Just weeks after being beaten by Juventus in Serie A, two old rivals resume hostilities in the Coppa Italia, in what will be an all-or-nothing game.
At the quarter-final stage, the number of obstacles towards a piece of silverware is narrowing. With either Torino or AC Milan awaiting the winner in the semi-final – both of which are winnable on paper – Roma know that a win tomorrow is a major step towards a first final since 2013.
The only problem? The opponent is the strongest team in the country, who have already shown they know how to beat Roma this month. Coupled with the fact that Edin Dzeko will be unavailable through suspension, and that the Giallorossi have still not won at the Juventus Stadium since its re-opening, and the size of the task becomes a lot larger.
Nonetheless, Paulo Fonseca insists his side go into the game with confidence. “The important thing tomorrow is to play with ambition, desire and confidence,” he said at a press conference, in reference to Roma’s poor record at the Allianz Stadium, “if we are to change this record from the last few years. We know it will be a very tough game, against a really strong side who are in good form. But we will play to win.”
Once again the coach is relying on a thin squad, with Nikola Kalinic set to lead the line in Dzeko’s absence again, having done so relatively well in the last round against Parma. Behind him, Fonseca will have to stick with the trident of Justin Kluivert, Lorenzo Pellegrini and Cengiz Under due to injuries elsewhere.
There is a first call-up to the senior squad for young Brazilian striker Felipe Estrella, while Federico Fazio, Aleksandar Kolarov and captain Alessandro Florenzi return to the selection after missing the win over Genoa at the weekend.
It’s a game that Fonseca admits his players have still not recovered from, but they will need to play through the pain barrier to try and turn the tides in Turin tomorrow. It won’t be easy, but the motivation should be clear to see.
The game kicks off at 7:45pm UK time, and will be shown live on BT Sport 3.
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