Rome is there. Saturday in the championship leaves the feeling of a mature team, finally ready to undermine the top of the standings. Beating Empoli was essential, the Giallorossi succeeded at the end of a performance that was not exciting and for this reason even more precious. An unglamorous opponent, the Champions League upon us, an insidious but inevitable turnover: the ingredients for a misstep were all there, Roma dribbled past them without too many problems. “We wanted to keep winning and we succeeded – commented Garcia. – The third consecutive success will give us even more strength to think about the Champions League. I'm not interested in saying whether we are favorites or not, I just know that we are second in the standings and we want to aim for the maximum”. No more proclamations like last year, the French coach continues on the line chosen in the summer, made up of a low profile but many ambitions. On the other hand, the championship is long and treacherous and no match can ever be considered easy. Yesterday too, against an Empoli without Saponara, it took the champion's play to win, testifying to the great qualities of the Giallorossi squad. Once again, Miralem Pjanic was decisive, a fairy-footed midfielder whose explosion, so far, has only been held back by discontinuity. In the 56th minute, in a rather dangerous stalemate, he unlocked the match with the specialty of the house: the free-kick from the edge of the area. After Buffon and Brkic, Skorupski also had to surrender to the Bosnian's right foot, the same one who, three minutes later, brushed the 2-0 assist on De Rossi's head (500th appearance for the Giallorossi celebrated in style). The exclamation point came from Salah (69') and so Buchel's goal (75') was only used for the match score.
For a Rome that threatens the first place there is a Lazio that could even take it. If Fiorentina were to lose in Naples and Inter didn't go beyond a draw with Juve, the Biancocelesti would "risk" to find themselves at the top of the standings, albeit in cohabitation with the Viola. Creepy scenario thinking back to how things went up until a few weeks ago, with Pioli on the gridiron and the Olimpico in dispute. In the middle, however, is Di Francesco's Sassuolo, a far from affordable opponent, especially within the friendly walls of the Mapei Stadium. “At the moment I'm not interested in the standings – glossed over the Lazio coach. – I will only watch it from February, we must not think of the results on other fields but only on ours ". Feet on the ground and no flight of fancy, here is Pioli's recipe. Who, in addition to Sassuolo, must once again deal with the accident emergency. Biglia and Parolo got hurt with the national teams, Djordjevic is back in the pits and De Vrij, at least for the moment, is better not to think about it at all. And so the Biancoceleste coach will present a rather remodeled formation, with Marchetti in goal, Basta, Hoedt, Gentiletti and Lulic in defense, Onazi and Cataldi in midfield, Candreva, Milinkovic and Felipe Anderson in the trocar, Klose in attack. Di Francesco will try to erase the defeat in Empoli with the usual 4-3-3, with Berardi, Sansone and Floro Flores in attack.
