Roma's Scudetto challenge in Serie A appears to be over but tonight will be about European romance and adventure. The Giallorossi are not one of the clubs tipped to win the Champions League but having been drawn against Shakhtar Donetsk in the last 16, they will be hopeful of progressing to the quarter-finals at least.
Claudio Ranieri's team, though, haven't had the best of build-ups to this encounter, having fallen down 5-3 to Inter before losing 2-0 to Napoli at home on Saturday evening. Back-to-back defeats have left the Lupi outside the top-six in the league standings, and tonight's game will give them a chance to distract themselves and recover the reason to rejoice.
Playing the first-leg of their last 16 encounter at home will be a disadvantage and coach Claudio Ranieri is fully aware of the task at hand and said on Tuesday, “Shakhtar are a big club. A lot of Italian journalists were happy when we got them in the draw in Nyon, but I knew we were up against an excellent team. We will have to play a great match. We take a lot of care when it comes to this competition.”
Conquering Rome
Like like Roma, Shakhtar Donetsk will know that they do have a genuinely good chance to progress to the quarter-finals of the Champions League. Playing Roma away in the first-leg of their last 16 tie is going to give them an advantage as a draw will be enough to boost their confidence for the return game in Ukraine.
However, the Ukrainian champions have not played any competitive football since December and have been on a winter break domestically since November. This will be Shakhtar's first appearance in the last 16 of Europe's premier club competition and coach Mircea Lucescu says that there is no room for overconfidence.
“It's hard starting to play again after more than two months,” admitted Lucescu. “In fact, our last official match was on 8 December against Braga in the UEFA Champions League. That was a great performance, and was followed by a long holiday. After a break like that it's not easy to find your match fitness and you have to work a lot to get the team right.”
He added, “AS Roma are not used to losing three successive matches, because I think the draw against Brescia was the equivalent of a defeat, and their pride will have been hurt. We will be better organised tactically than Roma, even if they have a lot of good players, but we know that the game will be played over 180 minutes and not only 90.”
TEAM NEWS
Roma
Striker Marco Borriello is sidelined with a muscular injury. Doni will start in goal instead of the injured Julio Sergio and midfielder David Pizarro will be rested because of a knee problem. Francesco Totti is set to make a start.
Shakhtar Donetsk
Fernandinho is sidelined and so is Olexandr Kucher with a knee injury.
Prediction
Shakhtar will play for a draw in Rome while Roma need to win as they will know that winning in Ukraine will be immensely tough. This will be an interesting encounter and will not involve too many goals. One reckons that the Lupi will just about nick it in the end.
Roma 1-0 Shakhtar 
