MD33: Roma - Lecce

[Jager]

Roma - Lecce

Stadio Olimpico

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Roma and Lecce will both be desperate for a win here in order to catch their rivals in the League. While Roma are chasing Fiorentina in the race for Champions League qualification, their opponents are simply hoping to survive in Serie A for another year. But with both teams hitting form recently this should be a much closer encounter than the League table would suggest.

Lecce’s shock win over Milan showed just how much they have changed in recent weeks and, combined with the wins over Siena and Palermo, has given them a fighting chance of saving their top flight status. They still need to catch eight points over their relegation rivals, a daunting task with only six games remaining, but on their current form it is far from over for the Southern outfit. They will still be the underdogs going into this match though as they haven’t beaten Roma at the Olimpico for 20 years.

The Roman Giallorossi will be hoping to recover from their recent wobble and return to their record-breaking form of a few weeks ago. The loss of talismanic captain Francesco Totti was a big blow, but they have recovered slightly despite failing to keep their amazing run of consecutive wins going.

Their last two results have both been 1-1 draws but given that they were against Juventus and Fiorentina they were hardly disappointing. Those results have kept them in contention for that all important fourth Champions League spot and a win here could see them leapfrog over the Viola at this critical stage in the season. Coach Luciano Spalletti will be rueing the injuries to Totti, Vincenzo Montella, Shabani Nonda and Edgar Alvarez at such an important point.



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Roma: Doni; Panucci, Mexes, Chivu, Cufre; De Rossi, Aquilani; Rosi, Perrotta, Mancini; Taddei

Lecce: Sicignano; Cassetti, Diamoutene, Stovini, Rullo; Giacomazzi, Ledesma, Del Vecchio; Konan, Pinardi; Vucinic

Ref: To follow...

http://www.channel4.com/sport/footba...6/rom-lec.html

[Rosa]

Won 3-1, sounded like a nice solid performace. And temp 4th, pressure on Fiorentina.

[Jager]

Well you needed the win. Gained two on Fiorentina.

I'm sure you can thank Juve.

[sinoy1]

technically one point but hope to get another 2 on them next week!