betprepare.com

The Romans don't want to be collateral victims at San Paolo

Roma haven't been great lately, but their coach Garcia thinks the press overdo it with the criticisms

Napoli took the top of the Serie A by beating Inter, but they only stayed there for one week thanks to losing points in the away game against Bologna in the last round. Sarri's team didn't start the game at Dall'Ara well, and the coach was very angry with the umpires after the game because Destro's first goal for Bologna was scored from the offside.

However, Sarri should be angrier with his defense playing badly, lead with the insecure goalie Rein. Even though Napoli were beaten in Bologna with a minimum difference, Higuain scored both goals in the final moments.

Napoli recovered from that loss quickly, and crushed Legija in the Europa League using their substitute players. Napoli look great playing the European matches, and have every right to be the favorite of the competition.

Sarri now has to do the derby against Roma: 

- Beating Legija was important because we did it against a team trying to get to the qualifiers, and the fact that we won shows maturity. I don't think my team feel a favorite against Roma. They're the natural opponents for Juventus when it comes to the champion title, and we can't talk about them as a team in a crisis. The injuries affected their results for sure. I don't care about the league table much. I know this is a special game for people of Napoli. We want to make our fans happy.

He doesn't have many absences to deal with, only the forward Gabbiadini who wouldn't get a chance against Roma next to Higuain anyway. The wing forward Mertens proved his injury is a thing of the past when he scored the goals against Legija, so now the big question comes whether he or Insigne will start at the left side of Napoli's offense. 

After winning the big city derby against Lazio, Roma got into a 5-game losing streak. The failures in the championship lead Garcia's team to the fourth place, and Roma managed to get through in the Champions League even though they played a draw with no goals against BATE Borisov at home on Wednesday. Regardless of getting only one point in two games against the Belarus, Garcia managed to get his team to play the Champions League in the spring.

Roma have been playing badly lately, the fans whistle after their team at the end of their games, and the Italian press are getting louder speculating who could replace Garcia. Garcia believes his team can get points at San Paolo: 

- It seems that, according to everything I haven't been reading or listening, but have been hearing nonetheless, that the weakest team in Italy are going to face the strongest. We're not going to San Paolo to be collateral victims, we're going there to get a result, as always. This all reminds me of the last derby. We were tired because we were playing the Champions League, and Lazio spared their players in the Europa League, and we won in the end anyway. It was like that against Fiorentina, too. Napoli? Sarri is a good coach, and his team are very dangerous with Higuain leading the offense.

The biggest news for Roma is that the wing forward Salah recovered completely. Now the question arises, will Garcia use Salah and Gervinho next to Džeko in the center offense, who both only recovered, or he'll use one of them as a wild card from the bench. The guests don't have any other big absences to be worried about, and only the captain Totti and the back Torosidis are injured of the more important players. 

The odds don't make this seem like a derby, but Roma's coach said it well, the mood before the Napoli - Roma duel is as if the best team were hosting the complete outsider. That's definitely not true, especially now that Gervinho and Salah are back for Roma. They're very fast wing forwards who can harm defenses stronger than Napoli's. Besides, Bologna scored three goals, and almost four, to Rein. Napoli's defense showed weaknesses against Inter already, and Bologna revealed them even further. On the other hand, their offense are great, Higuain's been brilliant, their wing forwards are really dangerous (Callejon, Insigne, Mertens), and both teams have midfielders who can also be dangerous playing the offense. In a match where both teams use 4-3-3 tactic with top notch forwards, and whose goalies showed insecurity lately, it's hard to expect this game not to end with many goals scored.