Champions League: Roma, Inter Back in Action

By: Martha | October 2nd, 2007

Distant memories. Matchday 2 is finally upon is, and Roma and Inter will be celebrating by each playing their fourth match in less than two weeks. As mentioned earlier today, Roma are in Manchester, hell-bent on getting revenge for that 7-1 beating — or not, if you ask Luciano Spalletti — at Old Trafford about six months again. Until just a few games ago, Roma were flying, both in Italy and in Champions League (they demolished Dynamo Kiev on Matchday 1), but the draw with Fiorentina and loss to Inter have cooled the “Best Team in Europe!” frenzy somewhat; a solid performance will go a long way towards alleviating supports’ concerns, while an ass-kicking will send everyone right back into orbit.

Man U aren’t scoring a lot of goals these days and have some possible injury problems at the back with Edwin Van Der Sar out and both Wes Brown and Nemanja Vidic questionable (though they’re listed in most projected lineups), while Roma have Alberto Aquilani back at their disposal but are without Christian Panucci, Matteo Ferrari, Rodrigo Taddei and Marco Cassetti. Chris has his usual preview up at the Roma blog, and presumably Nick will have some coverage of the Man U side of things over here.

Inter’s fortunes, meanwhile, have been the opposite of Roma’s over recent weeks: Things started out dismally for the club (including utter domination by Fenerbahce during Matchday 1), but the last week has been very encouraging, with comprehensive wins over both Sampdoria and 10-man Roma, outscoring their opponents 7-1 over those two matches. Against PSV they will have Cristian Chivu back from injury and therefore will have the great luxury of a single extra defender on the bench, while Zlatan Ibrahimovic seems to have recovered from the foot injury he received against Roma and is one of three strikers in the squad list for today’s home meeting with PSV.

The Dutch side currently top Group G but are having all kinds of trouble at home, having just dropped into second behind Ajax in the Eredivisie and lost their right to compete in the Dutch Cup because they used an illegal player in the tournament. Oops. That said, though, they’ve not lost in Europe in ages, and Italian sides tend to struggle against Dutch competition, so it’s anyone’s guess what’s happen tonight. If PSV are not going to use an intelligible player and hand Inter a win, one hopes they’re at least out of sorts enough to be disconcerted by Zlatan’s mad scoring skills (either that or the fact that he used to play for Ajax) and will concede a goal or four today.