On this evening in the Italian championships, a match will take place that could have a big influence on the battle for bronze medals. "Roma", currently in third place, will host "Inter", who are five points behind in fifth place. "Eurofootball.com" provides you with a review of these matches.
"Roma" vs "Inter"
Match time and location: March 19th at 21:45 at the "Stadio Olimpico" stadium in Rome;
Referee: Daniele Orsato;
Head-to-head history: "Inter" has won 82 times, "Roma" has celebrated victory in 52 meetings, and 48 matches have ended in a draw.
Teams' form: "Roma" (4 wins, 1 loss); "Inter" (4 wins, 1 loss);
Tournament situation: After 29 rounds, "Roma" occupies third place with 59 points, while "Inter" with 54 points is in fifth place.
Team news:
"Roma":
After facing "Real" in the Champions League, "Roma" can now focus solely on Serie A matches. They are in excellent form and have won 8 consecutive matches following a loss to "Juventus".
"Roma" hopes that defender Antonio Rudiger will be able to play in these matches, but they may still be without two other defenders - Leandro Castan and Norberto Gyomber. Both players have only played sporadically this season.
"Inter":
"Inter" is also solely focused on one tournament. In the early stages of the Italian Cup, they lost to "Juventus" in a penalty shootout and missed out on the final.
Unlike their opponents, "Inter" will have problems in the attacking department. Rodrigo Palacio will miss the match due to suspension, and Stevan Jovetic has not played since February 20th. It is expected that Mauro Icardi, the top scorer of the season for "Inter", who has been recovering from an injury this week, will be able to contribute to his team in this evening's match.
Predicted lineups:
"Roma" (4-2-3-1): Szczesny; Florenzi, Manolas, Zukanovic, Digne; Nainggolan, Keita; Salah, Perotti, El Shaarawy; Dzeko.
"Inter" (4-2-3-1): Handanovic; D'Ambrosio, Miranda, Juan Jesus, Nagatomo; Brozovic, Medel; Ljajic, Eder, Perisic; Icardi.
Key statistics ahead of the match:
In their last few Serie A matches, both teams have each won two games, while the other two matches ended in draws;
In their last five home games, "Roma" have only conceded one goal;
In their last eleven matches in the Italian championships, "Inter" have managed to keep a clean sheet only once;
In their last five outings, "Inter" have only picked up two points - their worst streak since February 2014;
"Roma" is the highest-scoring team in Serie A so far. They have scored the most goals in the first (28) and second (33) halves of matches;
"Inter" is the only team in the Italian championship to have two players in the top five goal scorers - Mauro Icardi and Eder have each scored 12 goals and share 4th and 5th place. However, Eder scored all his goals while playing for "Sampdoria" and has yet to find the net for his new team in eight matches;
Miralem Pjanic, with 10 assists, is unmatched in this category. However, he shares the top spot with Napoli's Lorenzo Insigne.
Tautvydas Sakalauskas
