Napoli and Roma meet in the Derby del Sole. Both teams fought determinedly for points to stay in the cup zone.
The next edition of Derby del Sole is today. Roma travel to the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona to face Napoli. Both teams enter the clash highly motivated, hoping to gain all the points and anchor themselves in the cup zone.
Roma bounced back from last week’s defeat to Bologna to claim a crucial midweek victory over Udinese. Bryan Cristante’s goal in the 95th minute gave Roma an important victory in the fight for a place in the Champions League.
This win gave the Giallorossi a boost ahead of a difficult end to the season. Starting with Napoli, the Romans face a string of tough matches that include confrontations with Juventus, Bayer Leverkusen and Atalanta.
“The most difficult aspect of this part of the season is the number of games to be played in such a short time,” admitted De Rossi during an interview on Roma TV.
“All the teams we will face are at a very high level. You will need freshness, but in most cases others are struggling with similar problems. It will be difficult, but there is no point in feeling sorry for yourself. Napoli is the only team that is close to Inter in terms of level, they were unstoppable last year. They’re struggling this year, but they’re always a tough opponent.”
He continued: “I came here three months ago, if you had told me I would be fifth with 4 points over Atalanta and 6 above Lazio, I would have taken it blindly, considering where we started.”
De Rossi confirmed that defender Evan Ndicka will make his first appearance since the fateful event in Udine. However, he will be missing two key players as striker Romelu Lukaku is still injured and Leandro Paredes is sidelined. Most likely, Sardar Azmoun and Edoardo Bove will replace this duo. Zeki Celik is the favorite to play at right back instead of Rick Karsdorp.
Meanwhile, defending champions Napoli are still trying to salvage something from their terrible season. After winning the championship, few predicted that Napoli would fall as low as they did this season.
They have rarely shown flashes of last year’s championship form and have tormented their fans with poor performances. They go into Sunday’s clash with just one win in their last six Serie A games and their troubles continue under interim manager Francesco Calzona.
Despite their problems, they are still in the fight for European cups, but they know that they cannot afford to make further mistakes.
“Our defeat against Empoli revealed various problems, and that was worrying for me. We missed numerous opportunities to fight for a place in the Champions League, but now there is no point in working out the math,” Calzona said during the pre-match press conference.
“There is no point in looking at permutations now. We simply have to approach each match individually – starting with the performance against Roma. We need to play well, both with and without the ball. I hope to see a team playing well tactically, but also with character.”
Adding: “Of course I didn’t expect so many problems when I came here, but, after a few days, I realized that the problems were much bigger than I thought. The players must take responsibility for the situation we are in – we all have to do that. I try to give everyone a chance and I choose my team based on what I see in training and then in matches.
Calzona will have additional defensive options against Roma, with Amir Rrahmani and Mario Rui available after one-match suspensions. There are also weaknesses: midfielder Piotr Zieliński and Mathías Olivera will not play due to injuries.
