AS Roma vs KAA Gent
AS Roma will meet KAA Gent in the UEFA Europa League round of 32 first leg, where the match was held at the Stadio Olimpico (Rome). This match will be their third meeting in history.
They have met in 2009 in the play offs and won by AS Roma with a 2-10 aggregate. At that time KAA Gent was easily destroyed by AS Roma and it was hoped that a decade had passed that the same results would not be repeated. Of course in this match AS Roma is more favored to win, KAA Gent is indeed one of Belgium’s best teams. The visitors came with an unbeaten run in the last 8 matches with 5 wins and 3 draws.
Then they came out as group I winners with 12 points while AS Roma with luck became group J representative after collecting 9 points and becoming runner up. But yesterday’s group stage does not mean KAA Gent is better, considering that AS Roma are in a hellish group with Turkey’s best Turkish club Buyuksehir and also Germany’s strong team Borussia Monchengladbach.
Indeed AS Roma is down, Edin Dzeko et al failed to win in the last 5 matches with a draw and also 4 defeats. Helpless against Juventus, Atalanta to be held against Lazio became a separate homework for coach Paulo Fonseca.
However AS Roma in terms of player quality and experience is clearly better than KAA Gent, most likely AS Roma will win and at the same time become the momentum of their rise.
Our Prediction: 1
Odds: 1.45