We have better goalie, defence and midfield. Kinda crazy that our squad is better on paper in cl semis. Anyways these games are not decided on paper but on field. Their forwards are scary and our dee must be able to contain them.
How do you compare the players? Liverpool outplayed City, a team superior compared to Roma's and Liverpool's teams. They could possibly overrun us and leave no room to play for anything in the 2nd leg. Imo, if we don't fvk up badly in this leg, we can advance at home where we're yet to concede in this CHL's campain
And Roma overrun Barca which have superior squad compared to City and basically every team in the world. Like I said these games aren't played on paper but pitch.
I think EDF is going to be very pragmatic. We are going to allow Liverpool to have possession and force them to push through our 3-5-2. When Liverpool are denied space to run behind, their speed isn't as effective. In many ways, Roma is Liverpool's worst tactical matchup because we won't just come at them like Madrid and Bayern would, which plays into their hands.
Lets see, I too expect EDF to take a different aproach tactically compared to the other opponents. You can say that they're the worst matchup for us too. We need the perfect game just to stop their attack from scoring.
We need a perfect game to stop any CL semi-finalist's attack from scoring on us, period. At least we'd have the opportunity to reveal their over-rated EPL defence/midfield. I'd rather we play vs a club who relies on stars from an over-rated local league that cannot do sh*t at any international level competition than a team from a more pragmatic league where they rely on raw individual talent regardless of the player's nationality. Liverpool are the weakest opponent we could've drawn, so let's get on the pitch and do our best. We'd progress or not, but this is as much in our own hands and it ever could've been at this stage of the competition.
I think Liverpool is similar to Roma in that they are capable of playing incredible football but not all that consistent in so doing. Klopp's style is also quite rigid which means there's certain teams that seem perfect matchups for them (like City) and others that don't (Tottenham, Sevilla). They're competing for 4th place because they've had trouble getting consistent results against mid table teams as well. I think about the same for Roma v Liverpool as I think for Roma v Napoli: any given day the match may end a draw or 3-1 for either team if they start to get a leg up. The keys for Roma in the away fixture seem: 1) Our midfield pressures them but without committing wing backs too high. This may not lead to clear breakaways off lost balls but hopefully turns match into midfield war instead of track meet. 2) In possession we need to do what we did against Barca: play around the pressure deep in our half only for a couple of touches/passes to get time/space to play the ball up to Dzeko. Dzeko against there CBs holding up and laying off should be an advantage for us. I would add that it will be interesting to see if Di Fra plays Under (for his speed in getting behind) or Schick (mismatch to play ball in air to against there fullbacks to help against press).
Liverpool are huge favorites and rightly so; they will be expecting a thumping, maybe even an easy victory. Even though, I do not believe we will reach the final - I think we will get very close. No need to waste energy and take so many risks at Anfield, we can do this at the Olimpico. I doubt Schick will start, I assume our Zeman-lover will want pace against Liverpool to try and nick a goal on the counter attack. No matter what happens; it has been a fantastic CL campaign - the squad must believe in more now though.
Yeah, maybe better he becomes our Ranieri-lover for a day. Don't really think Liverpool is a huge favorite to go through, though. Probably slight favorites due to how clinical they've been finishing chances. People really overrate EPL teams when they mainly just look good against each other.
They struggled immensely against Man Utd, who I think is the closest example of how we will approach the game. Over 2 legs they couldn't create any real chances and only scored from OG, while Lukaku destroyed them on long balls. My biggest concern is that we fail to score an away goal if we take this approach, we desperately need one if we are going to reach the final. That and Juan vs Salah.
#ASRoma will wear their white away kit with the new @QatarAirways logo on the front for the first time in the @ChampionsLeague semi-final against #LFC on Tuesday night at Anfield pic.twitter.com/hdW9oMLjLl— AS Roma English (@ASRomaEN) April 23, 2018
Walk around #Anfield @SkySport #LFC #LiverpoolRoma pic.twitter.com/atd0z5tSGK— Angelo Mangiante (@angelomangiante) April 23, 2018
I wish Totti and Gerrard could come out of retirement for this one. Main objective just needs to be to keep this tie winnable going into Rome. Even a 2-1 loss wouldn't be terrible. We may be inexperienced at this level, but so is this Liverpool squad. I'm expecting both sides to be a bit nervy.
Di Francesco: "Liverpool don’t wait around and are very attacking. They’ve got a great ability to play the ball forwards quickly. "Cengiz and Schick each have a 50% chance of playing: it’s between those two for a place in the starting line-up." #ASRoma #UCL #LFCRoma pic.twitter.com/VD2sxESPIX— AS Roma English (@ASRomaEN) April 23, 2018
It's really tough. I don't think two CF's will work quite as well as it did against Barca. But Under works so much better as an impact sub compared to Schick.
In addition to Klopp's style being fairly rigid, Liverpool's line-up pretty much picks itself. Even I can recite it already: Karius, Robertson, Lovren, Van Dijk, Alexander-Arnold, Milner, Henderson, Wijnaldum, Mane, Firmino, Salah. I think EDF can keep Klopp guessing a bit more with his choices. We must be a bit of an enigma for them right now. Daje Roma, we can do this!
Wouldn’t be surprised to see Oxlade-Chamberlain in the midfield. He brings an element of athleticism the others don’t offer.