Roma vs Slavia Prague

Stadio Olimpico forms the backdrop for a top-table Europa League Group G six-pointer between Roma and Slavia Prague.

Last season’s Europa League beaten finalists Roma has got the new campaign in Europe’s secondary competition off to a flying start, overcoming Sherrif Tiraspol 2-1 on day one before a 4-0 thrashing of Servette to tighten the stranglehold on Group G’s top place. Beating Slavia Prague in their first meeting since 1996 (W1, L1) would ensure Roma’s soar to the top at the halfway stage, and their impeccable three-game home form against Czech visitors bodes well (W3). ‘I Giallorossi’ found the net at least three times in each of those encounters, which has also been the case in two of their last four home outings. Jose Mourinho picked up another red card at the weekend for making ‘crying’ gestures toward the Monza bench as Roma eked out a 1-0 victory to extend their winning run to four matches.

Meanwhile, visiting Slavia Prague take this trip as Group G pacesetters after easing past Servette 2-0 and Sheriff Tiraspol 6-0. That impressive result against the Moldovan side forms part of Slavia’s stunning run of four clean sheets across their last five competitive matches (W4, D1). Since a meaningless 2-1 defeat to Zorya in the return leg of their Europa League qualification playoffs, the Czech giants have racked up a nine-game unbeaten run in all competitions (W7, D2), netting 2+ goals in 67% of those matches. However, they’ve experienced poor fortunes against Italian clubs throughout history, recording a dismal 21% win ratio across their 14 previous such H2Hs (W3, D3, L8). That’s not to mention they’ve never won a European fixture on Italian soil (D1, L5).