It’s one of Europe’s biggest club rivalries as Lazio take the trip down the road to play their rivals, Roma in the second-leg of their Coppa Italia semi-final. Lazio go into the fixture with a 2-0 lead from the first leg but with a very hostile atmosphere at the Stadio Olimpico, they’ll struggle to keep their lead. The first leg took them one big step closer to the final as Milikinkovic-Savic and Immobile both got on the scoresheet while they stayed defensively strong to keep Roma from scoring.

STATS

• Lazio have been brilliant in the competition and beat Genoa and Inter in the last 2 rounds with 4-2 and 2-1 wins in the respective matches. The form of their defence has been the real talking point for them in the competition as they have managed great performances with the game at Inter being the stand-out showing.
• Roma have also played well in this season’s competition with a 4-0 win over Sampdoria in the last 16 followed by a narrow 2-1 win over Cesena in the quarter-final. They will need their attacking players to be on top form against Lazio as they need to claw back the 2-goal deficit.
• Radja Nainngolan and Edin Dzeko have been Roma’s tied top goal scorers in the competition so far both with 2 goals in the 3 games. Nainngolan got both against Sampdoria while Dzeko got one against Sampdoria and Cesena.
• There are 3 Lazio tied with 2 goals in the Coppa Italia this season: Ciro Immobile, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic and Antonio Candreva. However, it was the first two who managed to grab the vital goals in the first leg of this tie.

HEAD TO HEAD

In the last two meetings between the sides in the Coppa Italia, it’s actually Lazio who have managed to win both games with a 2-0 win most recently and 1-0 back in 2013. Roma have dominated Lazio in the league and will hope to take it into the cup.

ROMA NEWS

Roma will need to be at their very best to pull this tie back from the jaws of defeat and with the impact of their home fans, they should have a great chance. However, they’re missing one of their most influential players with Alessandro Florenzi sidelined for the game with cruciate ligament damage. One positive is that Daniele De Rossi will return for the game and should start for the hosts, which is a massive boost for their hopes of winning.

Latest matches in Coppa Italia: AS Roma

01.03.2017	Copp	Lazio Roma	AS Roma	2:0	L
01.02.2017	Copp	AS Roma	AC Cesena	2:1	W
19.01.2017	Copp	AS Roma	Sampdoria Genoa	4:0	W

LAZIO NEWS

Lazio have a great chance of reaching the final with a decent 2-0 lead from the first leg but they have a few of their best players missing from the game. Federico Marchetti and Stefan De Vrij are absent through injury while their energetic midfielder, Marco Parolo, is suspended from the match. These are all big misses.

Latest matches in Coppa Italia: Lazio Roma

01.03.2017	Copp	Lazio Roma	AS Roma	2:0	W
31.01.2017	Copp	Inter Milan	Lazio Roma	1:2	W
18.01.2017	Copp	Lazio Roma	Genoa FC	4:2	W

SUMMING UP!

Roma will head into the second leg as favourites to win on the night however it is could go either way in terms of the aggregate score. Lazio have a brilliant chance to go through but Roma should be able to break through their defence, it’s just a matter of whether they’ll be able to do this more than twice. It should be a very tense Rome derby and the team reaching the final could be either, we’ll just have to wait and see.