Roma – Lyon

The Italian giants Roma have a tough task in front of them in the second Europa League 1/8-finals clash against Olympique Lyonnais.

Luciano Spalletti’s team lost the first leg at the Parc Olympique Lyonnais with 2-4, although they had a goal advantage at the break. Everything bad for Roma happened during the second half of the game, when the French team scored three consecutive goals.

Now Roma have a difficult task at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. They have to neutralize Lyonnais’ two goals advantage, but they also have to be careful to not concede as well. Every goal scored by the French team will make Roma’s job even more difficult than it already is.

The Italian international Alessandro Florenzi is still out for the home team. In the first leg Luciano Spalletti chose Edin Dzeko and Mohamed Salah to lead Roma’s attack, but he has other options as well, just as Diego Perotti, Stephan El Shaarawy or even the legendary Francesco Totti.

Olympique Lyonnais needs at least one goal to feel more comfortable at the Olimpico and they certainly have some players who could do the job. Lyonnais’ star striker Alexandre Lacazette already showed us what he can do in the first leg, when he scored the fourth goal for his team with a beautiful strike in the last minutes of the game. Mathieu Valbuena, Corentin Tolisso and Rachid Ghezall are also players who could deal a lot of damage to Roma’s defense.

It’s safe to say that we could expect to see a lot of goals being scored at the Stadio Olimpico between these two teams. They are both very offensive minded and the first game between them proved that to us. There’s no reason not to expect another spectacular clash and who knows – maybe a lot of goals again?