Roma – Atalanta

Roma’s chances to win the title are close to zero with 6 rounds to go in the Italian Serie A but the hosts will surely try their best in this season end. Atalanta on the other hand will look to continue their excellent form of late and get a result at Stadio Olimpico.

Roma is in excellent form right now, putting together a string of 6 consecutive league wins, including a 3-1 success at Cagliari last round on the back of a hattrick by Mattia Destro. Unfortunately for Roma a run of poor results earlier in the season pretty much ruined their title challenge, as Juventus is now 8 points ahead. Roma will probably finish second, so there`s not a whole lot of motivation for them coming into this game, but nevertheless they are sure to give it their all on the pitch.

Atalanta (8th place) may well be the team of the moment in Italy. The visitors put together an incredible run of 6 consecutive wins (including over Inter and Lazio, both on the road) prior to a shock 2-0 defeat to Sassuolo last round. It was a tough loss, because Atalanta was looking really good value to catch that last Europa League spot – they can still do it however, as they are just 4 points away, but need to avoid repeating a performance like in the last round. Surely the visitors will improve at Stadio Olimpico.

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Team news & lineups

Roma has serious squad problems coming into this match, with no less than 6 first team regulars missing trough injury and suspension: Strootman, Florenzi, Benatia, Balzaretti, Pjanic and last week’s hattrick hero Destro. Atalanta will not be able to count on Cazzola and Del Grosso, while Moralez is doubtful.

AS Roma: De Sanctis – Maicon, Toloi, Castan, Romagnoli – Nainggolan, Rossi, Taddei – Gervinho, Totti, Ljajic

Atalanta: Consigli – Nica, Stendardo, Yepes, Brivio – Estigarribia, Cigarini, Baselli, Bonaventura – Luca, Denis

By no means does this look like it could be a walk in the park for Roma. Indeed, the hosts are in excellent form, they are the better team and are fantastic at home (10-3-0), but the odds are way off in my opinion. Atalanta are playing very good football themselves lately and most importantly Roma’s absences are likely to have a very big impact on the game. Roma has a very good rotation of about 15 players, but they do not have the required depth to deal with 6 key players missing – guys like Taddei, Toloi or Romagnoli are not exactly first team material right now and even more worrying for Roma is that they will have zero solutions on the bench. If Atalanta plays close to the level showed prior to the Sassuolo defeat, this is set to be a close encounter. Roma might win, but I reckon it won’t be easy at all for the hosts. My tip here is Atalanta +1,5 handicap and I would take this bet early because the odds are dropping fast. Prediction: AS Roma – Atalanta 2-1 or 1-1.

Pick: Atalanta (+1,5)
Odds: 1.79 @ Sbobet
Stake: 8
Possible profit: 6.32
Event date: 12 April