Roma Hosts Juventus in Absolute Must-Win Match

With only one victory in their last four matches—an awkward 20-minute replay against Udinese—it may feel like the wheels have fallen off Roma's great Daniele De Rossi experiment. However, when we look at these results in the light of day, here's what we have: an admittedly embarrassing defeat to a quality Bologna side, a last-gasp 2-2 draw against Napoli on the road, and a two-nil defeat to Xabi Alonso's and Bayer Leverkusen. Couple that with mounting fatigue and a few key injuries, and there you have it.

Of course, this mini skid came amid a brutal slate of fixtures for De Rossi and Roma. Since returning from March's international break, the Giallorossi have played eight matches in 31 days, including two taut fixtures against AC Milan in the Europa League quarterfinals and pressure cookers against Lazio, Napoli, and Udinese, during which they saw one of their teammates collapse on the pitch with apparent chest pain.

We all knew fixture fatigue would take its toll on Roma, but the club remains in the thick of the hunt for Italy's fifth and final Champions League spot. The problem is one of supply and demand. With only one (and possibly two) spots up for grabs and five clubs within nine points of each other, this race may come down to the season's final day.

The good news, if you view it as such, is that Roma gets looks at two of their direct competitors for those final CL places, Atalanta on the 12th and tomorrow's opponents, Juventus, who are making the trek southwards to the Stadio Olimpico for a Sunday evening fixture.

It's an all-hands-on-deck affair, so let's examine how these two sides measure up.

Keep an Eye On

Juve's Free Fall

Once the undisputed kings of Serie A (or would it be queens since they're the Old Lady of Italian Football?), Juventus has fallen down the pecking order lately, staring up the table at AC Milan and Inter Milan, who, thanks to their enormous lead at the top of the table, recently captured their second title in the past four seasons.

And while Inter was busy sewing up the Scudetto in 2024, Juve has been in a veritable free fall, dropping points in 12 of their last 15 matches in all competitions. As a result, Juve's once unimpeachable spot atop the standings has been erased, with the Torino-based club slipping down to third place, a mere six points ahead of Roma.

On the surface, Juve seems ripe for the plucking, but this has the makings of a classic trap game. Plus, you know, Roma tends to struggle against Juventus, to put it mildly.

Federico Chiesa

Silly season doesn't begin in earnest until July 1st, and while Roma doesn't even have a Director of Sport, that hasn't stopped the peninsula press from tabbing the 26-year-old winger/forward with the Giallorossi. After a pair of down years, Chiesa has rebounded this season, scoring seven goals and chipping in one assist in roughly 1,900 league minutes.

Chiesa has only scored once in his past ten matches, but like Juve's form in general, assuming that will remain the same on Sunday could be dangerous.

Will Paulo Dybala Play?

La Joya isn't hurt, mind you, but with the second leg against Leverkusen looming on Thursday, De Rossi may choose to rest Dybala or, at the very least, leave him on the bench until the second half.

Or not. We don't know, and apparently neither does De Rossi:

“Sometimes I like to keep things to myself and not let people in on our team news, but this time I really don’t know what condition the lads are in... In any case, Paulo, besides being an ex-Juventus player himself, is fine. He’s sad that we lost, as we all are. He ran a lot and physically he’s been looking very good. He’s the player that’s most surprised me fitness-wise. On a technical level there’s no surprise – we’ve all seen what he’s been capable of in the last few months.”

Whether or not Dybala starts tomorrow will provide insight into De Rossi's plans for Thursday's trip to Germany: will Roma punt on the Europa League altogether or fight tooth and nail to erase a two-goal deficit and book a trip to the finale in Dublin?

Hey, speaking of which... De Rossi addressed precisely that in his pre-match press conference:

“If our position is ‘somewhat compromised’, it means it hasn’t been compromised. It’s obviously harder than it was, and it was already a very tall order. Now we’ll need to go there and get a difficult result against a team that hasn’t lost in 47 matches. We know it will be very tough but we can do it. Roma have done it before and other teams have pulled off similar feats. Atalanta beat Liverpool 3-0 away a few weeks ago. Anything can happen in football. If a couple of things had gone the other way in the first half an hour of the first leg, it would have become a whole different scenario.

“The same goes in the return leg: if we score in the opening 30 minutes, who knows how things might pan out? It’s a dream for us and for our fans. We can sense how much it means to them so we can’t afford to apply any strange reasoning. We do have to manage our fitness levels because the league is important to us as well. We need to finish in the Champions League positions. We’ll make choices because we can’t field the same starting XI that played on Thursday or the same team against Bayer in Germany. But we’re not giving up on either objective.”

For my two cents, I say the hell with the Europa League. Overcoming a two-goal deficit on the road against an undefeated team is a bridge too far. Put all your eggs in the Serie A basket and try to take as many points as possible from the final four matches.

Match Details

Date: May 5th

Kickoff: 20:45 CET/2:45 EDT

Venue: Stadio Olimpico, Roma