Porto take on the visitors AS Roma in the first leg of UEFA Europa League round of 16. The match will be played on Thursday, February 13th at Estádio do Dragão (Porto).
Porto are used to winning the Primeira Liga at least once every two seasons. But in 2024, they were left without a trophy again, moreover, they fell seriously behind both Sporting and Benfica. Sergio Conceição still took the title, the Portuguese Cup, but was replaced by the new president, Villas-Boas, with Vitor Bruno. He immediately started with a bright victory in the Super Cup. But in general, not everything worked out, and Anselmi has been working since January. Tom had to immediately correct the situation in the Europa League, where before the last round his new charges had 8 points (wins over Hoffenheim and Midtjylland and draws with Manchester United and Anderlecht with losses to Bodo/Glimt, Lazio and Olympiakos). The young Argentine coped: in a formally away match, the Portuguese beat Maccabi (Tel Aviv) thanks to a single goal by Nico Gonzalez.
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Roma plays for the third time under Ranieri. The Giallorossi were finally disappointed in Mourinho a year ago. His replacement, De Rossi, started optimistically and managed to get rid of the prefix "acting". But he finished only 6th in Serie A, having been eliminated from the semi-finals of the previous Europa League in the spring, and was sacked soon after the start of the new season. His replacement, Ivan Juric, was a clear blunder, and only made the situation worse. Fortunately, he was quickly fired, because Claudio interrupted his retirement for the sake of a third term in the capital. He managed to put things in order quite quickly, and the "wolves" practically returned to the Eurocup zone by February. Well, and in the Europa League, the Italians achieved the desired result quite calmly. If under the previous coaches, in the first 4 rounds, they beat only the unmotivated Kiev Dynamo, and even then Dovbyk scored the only goal from the penalty spot, then with the most experienced coach they snatched a draw with Tottenham and won "dry" against Braga and Eintracht, and only lost to AZ on the road in January by a minimal amount.
The Dragons beat the Italians in the Champions League qualification in 2016 (3-0 in Rome after 1-1 at home) and knocked them out in the playoffs in 2019 (on penalties in extra time after a 2-1 draw). The Dragons are more popular in the odds, obviously due to the field factor. But this meeting is unlikely to bring a spectacle - the total under 2.5 goals suggests itself here.
Prediction for the match: Under 2.5 scored goals.
