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Last time it won – strong tip for Feyenoord vs Roma
The Dutch and Italian teams will meet again this year, for the first time in Rotterdam.
Thursday saw the start of the Europa League knockout stages, and in this article we will focus on the Feyenoord-Roma clash. In the bookmakers’ books, the Dutch are the favourites to win the first leg, with oddsmakers offering a comfortable double on them in three-way odds.
Team news 🇳🇱Feyenoord – Roma 🇮🇹
Feyenoord are through to the Europa League from the Champions League thanks to finishing third in their group behind Atlético Madrid and Lazio (ahead of Celtic alone).
The Dutch side’s spring form is not bad. They won five of their seven 2024 matches and only twice drawn.
In the domestic cup they beat PSV Eindhoven in the Eredivisie earlier this season and dropped them a couple of weeks ago. Since then they have beaten AZ Alkmaar twice, and won a city clash against Sparta at the weekend. The home side, incidentally, have not scored in their last five (!) games, or 464 minutes (!) without a goal.
Despite the good form, Arne Slot is not expected to be absent on Thursday. Timber is showing some signs of returning, while Trauner, Bijlow, Zechiel and Van Den Belt are out.
As for the away side, Roma originally started in the EL in this year’s international cup series. The Italians finished second behind Slavia Praha in Group G, ahead of Servette and Sheriff Tiraspol.
They recently had a change of manager, with José Mourinho replaced by former club icon Daniele De Rossi. Roma started well with De Rossi, beating Verona, Salernitana and Cagliari, but on Saturday they suffered a 4-2 defeat at home to Inter.
However Abraham out through injury, Cristante and Smalling both questionable. Ivory Coast defender Ndicka has returned to the Italian capital with an African Cup of Nations gold medal. It is not known whether he can take the game.
What is worth betting on?
The two sides have clashed in recent years in European cup competitions. Two years ago Roma winning 1-0 in the 2022 Conference League final and meeting in the EL quarter-finals last year. In Rotterdam, Feyenoord got the better(1-0), but ASR won the return leg 4-1 after 2-1 in normal time to progress.
This time, it could be another close game, not to mention a battle that has become a virtual prestige match. So we wouldn’t take a position on the winner, but we do see some fantasy in the penalty cards.
The bookmakers have set the line at 4.5 in this area, which we think the sides could jump. We base all this on the close game and the referee’s personality. The match will be refereed by Petrescu, who usually works with a high number of cards. For example, he gave out seven yellow cards in his last international cup match Lens-PSV.
