AS Roma have a major task in overturning a 1-0 deficit against Feyenoord

AS Roma look to overturn a 1-0 deficit against Feyenoord at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome

(Football news) Almost everything went wrong for AS Roma last Thursday as captain Lorenzo Pellegrini missed a first-half penalty, before Mats Wieffer produced a winner for Feyenoord. The star forward duo of Paulo Dybala and Tammy Abraham were both forced off with injuries. This Sunday Pellegrini redeemed himself by scoring the second goal in a 3-0 win over Udinese. Mourinho’s pragmatic approach has helped the Giallorossi long-awaited Champions League return.

Roma have won their last three Serie A games without conceding a single goal as they strengthen their grip on third place. But the main thing is that Roma is unbeaten in 20 European games at the Stadio Olimpico. They enter Thursday’s contest having progressed from each of their last three ties after losing the first leg. Roma are yet to win the Europa League and are now making only their second appearance in the quarter-finals, but last year’s Conference League winners now want to win the 2nd tier competition.

Feyenoord have lost six of their previous nine matches in Italy and their last victory in Italy came back in 2022, against Inter in the UEFA Cup. Feyenoord have gone without a win in their last five away games in Europe, so they will be all too aware that a semi-final place is far from secured. Feyenoord recently opened up a eight-point gap at the top of the Eredivisie of table but they lost in the KNVB Beker semi-finals to Ajax earlier this month.

Feyenoord won their ninth consecutive match on Sunday as it took them one stride closer to becoming the Dutch champions: They can shift all their efforts towards the Europa league, as the UEFA Cup winners of 1974 and 2002 aim to secure a first appearance in the Europa League semi-finals. Having been denied the chance to become the inaugural Conference League champions but Giallorossi beat them some 11 months ago. They will hope that they can get revenge at the Olimpico.

Roma possible starting lineup:
Patricio; Mancini, Smalling, Ibanez; Zalewski, Matic, Wijnaldum, Spinazzola; Pellegrini, Dybala; Abraham

Feyenoord possible starting lineup:
Bijlow; Geertruida, Trauner, Hancko, Hartman; Kokcu, Wieffer, Szymanski; Jahanbakhsh, Gimenez, Idrissi

Also read: Manchester United aim to keep Europa League hopes alive with win over Sevilla