Roma Vs Porto UCL 12 February Preview

Roma will host Porto at the Stadio Olympico in the first leg of their Champions league Round of 16 tie. Roma finished just behind Real Madrid in Group G while Porto finished as group toppers in Group D.

Roma

Roma qualified for the Round of 16 tie on the back of back-to-back victories against CSKA Moscow and a 5-0 win against Victoria Plzen despite losing home and away to defending champions, Real Madrid.

The Italian club have experienced a mix of events in the competition making their victory or loss more or less unpredictable.

Case in point, although, it could be said that they reached the semis before being edged out by Liverpool in the competition’s last edition, they had lost five successive matches before their win against Shakhtar Donetsk in the second leg of the quarters.

Before the famous 3-0 win against Barcelona, they had lost at the Camp Nou by a 4-1 scoreline.

They will be hopeful that this counts as one of the encounters when they come up tops.

Recent form (in the Champions League): L W W W L L

Porto

The Portuguese giants came out top of Group D pretty much unshuffled by any other side. Indeed, they lost points only to Schalke 04 who were able to salvage a draw from a penalty kick.

The Dragons deservedly earned a place in the knockout round after accumulating more points than any other side in the competition this term.

Porto are unbeaten on the road in European club ties and will be willing to maintain that.

Recent form (in the Champions League): W W L W D D

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Team News

For the hosts, Patrick Schick, Diego Perotti, Robin Olsen and Cengiz Under remain on the sidelines due to injury.  For the visitors, Vincent Aboubakar and Moussa Marega remain on the sidelines due to injury.

Possible Starting Line-Up

Roma

Mirante; Kolarov, Jesus, Marcano, Karsdorp, Mirante; Crisante, N’zonzi, Zaniolo; Kluivert, Dzeko, El Shaarawy

Porto

Casillas; Telles, Pepe, Felipe, Militao; Torres, Perreira, Herrera; Otavio, Soares, Brahimi

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