Roma vs AC Milan tips and predictions: Hosts to preserve narrow lead in Rome
Roma and AC Milan will renew rivalries in the Europa League on Thursday (2000 BST) with the hosts defending a slender 1-0 lead at Stadio Olimpico.
Roma are now favourites to reach the Europa League semi-finals after beating AC Milan 1-0 at the San Siro last week.
Since Daniele De Rossi replaced Jose Mourinho, AS Roma have suffered few setbacks and have looked rather comfortable in games.
Their only sticky patch saw them draw a pair of Serie A fixtures, 2-2 with Fiorentina and 0-0 with Leece while losing to league leaders Inter and Brighton in the Europa League.
This month, De Rossi's troops have managed two important wins, the first was in Serie A, 1-0 in the Derby della Capitale against Lazio, before beating AC Milan 1-0 in the first leg.
After the wins against the two rivals, Roma played against Udinese in a game that was stopped after 70 minutes, when the score was 1-1, due to some medical problems suffered by one of their centre-backs, Evan Ndicka.
Before the tie against Roma, AC Milan were in excellent form having won seven consecutive matches in all competitions, a winning streak they last managed in 2006 during Carlo Ancelotti’s reign.
On Sunday, Milan were involved in a thriller against Sassuolo as they managed to rescue a 3-3 draw, coming back from 2-0 and 3-1 down.
Key stats
- Roma’s win against AC Milan was their first in nine attempts
- AC Milan are unbeaten in three visits to Stadio Olimpico
- Roma have lost twice at home this season against AC Milan and Inter Milan
- Roma have faced an Italian team in European competition on two previous occasions, the 1991 UEFA Cup final and the Europa League in 2015
- Milan are unbeaten in five of their last six European fixtures against fellow Italian sides