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AS Roma will take on Viktoria Plzen in the second round of the Champions League Group G, which also features Real Madrid and CSKA Moscow.
Roma has a poor start to the season, which included an ugly 0-3 defeat against Real Madrid at Santiago Bernabeu two weeks ago. However, Di Francesco’s side has shown great improvement lately and is currently riding a wave of great form. Roma will come into this match on the back of two big wins against Frosinone (4-0) and most notably against rivals Lazio (3-1), both at home.
Viktoria Plzen isn`t playing particularly well this year. They have 8 wins and 2 losses in 10 matches in their domestic competition, but six (!!) of those wins came with the score of 1-0. What’s more, Plzen won just twice in the last 5 games in all competitions, and their last two away matches were horrific: 0-3 against Slavia Prague and 0-4 against Jablonec. In the Champions League Plzen almost claimed a big scalp in the first round, but was equalized in injury time at home by CSKA Moscow for a 2-2 draw. The visitors come into this game on the back of a 1-0 home win against title rivals Sparta Prague, their best result in quite some time.
Bet on Roma v Viktoria Plzen and claim your 100% (120 Eur) freebet at LSbet now!Team news & lineups:
Roma will miss captain De Rossi, Perotti and Pastore. Plzen has reported a clean bill of health and should have a full squad available.
AS Roma: Olsen – Florenzi, Manolas, Fazio, Kolarov – Cristante, Nzonzi, Pellegrini – Under, Dzeko, El Sharaawy
Viktoria Plzen: Kozacik – Reznik, Pernica, Hubnik, Limbersky – Kopic, Horava, Kolar, Hrosovsky, Kovarik – Krmencik
Plzen looked pretty good at home against CSKA Moscow, but taking on AS Roma away will be a different task – especially since Plzen has struggled badly on the road recently. At the same time, Roma has been a scoring machine in the last couple of games at Olimpico, so you would expect home court advantage to be a really big deal here.
There is obviously a quality gap between the two sides, but fact is that Roma is actually in better short term form as well. The hosts have been great in these past couple of weeks, while Plzen mostly had a September to forget.
In good form and with home court advantage, Roma should be able to get a solid win here against the Czech side, and get their Champions League campaign back on track after the loss in Madrid. Considering Roma`s recent goal scoring appetite, it`s fair to expect at least a couple of goals from them tonight at Olimpico.
My tip is Roma to win and cover the -1 asian handicap, which seems like a pretty safe bet at playable odds. Prediction: AS Roma – Viktoria Plzen 2-0.
Pick: AS Roma (-1 Asian Handicap)
Odds: 1.50 @ Pinnacle
Stake: 8
Possible profit: 4
Event date: 2 October
