CROTONE VS AS ROMA PREVIEW & PREDICTION
AS Roma had a success in the Champions League in midweek and hopes to continue the good form in the game against Crotone. Just like last week, the hosts are staging a high-profile stunt.
Crotone:
Crotone last season performed the almost impossible by striking back out of position and preventing relegation on the last day of play. This year the men of Walter Zenga are a lot better for it. Crotone is not this time on chase, but has to do with immense pressure of the teams around the sixteenth place. That sixteenth place is currently in the possession of the formation of Zenga, but number seventeen Sassuolo and number eighteen SPAL collected just as many points. Hellas Verona is two points below three and that shows that it is currently unusually exciting in the lower regions of the Serie A. It is striking that Crotone in the last weeks scored losses against direct competitors like SPAL and Benevento, but that the matches with Atalanta Bergamo, Internazionale and Sampdoria yielded five points.
Last week Crotone managed to treat Sampdoria on a big defeat and that happened at the moment when the pressure was highest. The men of Zenga convincingly shot out of the starting blocks and overcame the visitors with offensive football. For the fortieth minute, Marcello Trotta (two goals) and Adrian Stoian had already provided a comfortable 3-0 score, which meant that the match before the break was already decided. The counter eventually stalled at 4-1. A crucial victory as a defeat in the nineteenth position had resulted.
Zenga currently has a reasonably long injury list, but last week’s performance has shown that the available players are certainly able to stunt. However, AS Roma is still a lot better than Sampdoria and Crotone will really have to rise above themselves to achieve a new result. The loss of Ante Budimir is currently the biggest loss for Crotone. The Croatian striker, who also failed last week, is the current top scorer with six goals.
AS Roma:
AS Roma seems to have the best papers this season to claim the title ‘best of the rest’ behind Juventus and Napoli. The Romans are currently third in the Serie A and are defending a lead for three points against fellow townsman Lazio. The team of Eusebio di Francesco also succeeds again this season to throw high eyes in the Champions League and that has been different. The Italians defeated Shakhtar Donetsk a week ago and therefore they are allowed to go for the quarterfinals. In the competition the last few weeks have been doing quite well. Recently, however, 0-2 was lost from AC Milan, which was in good shape, but that was actually the only misstep. Five of the last six games were won and that has created a lot of confidence. The last four wins were all booked with a minimum of two goals difference.
Mid week there was an extremely difficult game for AS Roma against Shakhtar Donetsk. The experienced opponent from Ukraine had already won 2-1 against AS Roma for their own audience, making them the favorite to reach the quarterfinals. In Rome, however, Di Francesco’s formation succeeded in turning the tide. Edin Dzeko opened the score after halftime and his goal proved to be just enough to reach the next round. The out-target of AS Roma made the difference.
Di Francesco will have to carry out at least a change for the encounter with Crotone. Daniele de Rossi will not be present. The 34-year-old captain of the Romans collected his fifth yellow card of the season last week and he is suspended for this game. However, Di Francesco has enough qualities available with Radja Nainggolan and Kevin Strootman and they should be able to capture De Rossi’s absence. Rick Karsdorp is still on the side with a serious injury.
PREDICTION: AS Roma to win @ 1.55
