Roma Look to Put Derby Draw Behind Them With Away Trip to Sassuolo

With the winter mercato done and dusted, Roma has the squad it will have until the end of the 2019-2020 season. It’s far too early to tell if Carles Perez, Gonzalo Villar, and Ibañez will have a positive, negative, or any impact on the rest of Roma’s season, but as of right now, we’ve got an actual game to watch.

Last Match

September 15, 2019: Roma 4, Sassuolo 2

This was a fun match, albeit one that seemed a bit closer in the second half than the scoreline might indicate. Goals from Bryan Cristante, Edin Džeko, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, and Justin Kluivert pushed Roma up to a 4-0 before the end of the first half, showing off just how offensively potent Paulo Fonseca’s Roma can be. The second half saw Roma take the foot off the gas pedal, unfortunately, and a second-half brace from Domenico Berardi brought a little more tension to this game than there should have been. Bren’s analysis after the match still seems about right:

The defense. Enough said. They have to sort this out before it brings them down again.

Thanks for the insight, Bren. Unfortunately, Roma hasn’t always gotten the memo here, and as we get deeper into the second half of the season, that’s something the squad will need to develop if they want to keep their Champions League hopes alive.

Can Sassuolo Get Out of the Cellar?

Sassuolo has consistently been one of the feel-good stories of Serie A for quite some time now; the small club has repeatedly found itself in the top half of the standings, sometimes looking more well put-together than the traditional big boys of Italy. That has quite simply not been the case this season; Sassuolo have lost ten so far, and despite their reasonably okay -3 goal differential, I Neroverdi are certainly in dire straits.

Sassuolo vs. Roma: February 1st. 20:45 CET/2:45 EST. Mapei Stadium, Citta del Tricolore.

Roma need to seize on this and not fall prey to playing down to their competition if they want to maintain their hold on fourth place. With their draw to Lazio last match week, Roma are only one point ahead of fifth-place Atalanta. Considering that the Orobici have had relatively similar form to Roma recently (three wins, one draw, one loss compared to two wins, one draw, and two losses), it’s especially critical that Roma finds wins wherever and whenever they can. That starts with a win against Sassuolo tomorrow.