Roma have made some excellent progress under Jose Mourinho, winning the Europa Conference League last season and they could go one better this time around. Having lost to Red Bull Salzburg in the first leg of their play-off match to reach the knockout round, the Italian side were able to claim a 2-0 victory and they haven’t looked back.
A 2-0 aggregate win over Real Sociedad in the next round illustrated that Mourinho still knows how to achieve victories by keeping things defensively tight, with Roma then recovering from losing 1-0 against Feyenoord to claim an extra-time victory over their Dutch opponents at the Stadio Olimpico before that win over Leverkusen.
Sevilla were successful in the Europa League under Unai Emery and José Luis Mendilibar will hope to continue that tradition, with the Spanish side having overcome PSV Eindhoven 3-2 before beating Fenerbahce 2-1 on aggregate. They were then big outsiders to get the better of Manchester United although a 2-2 comeback draw at Old Trafford was followed by a 3-0 win at home.
We’re expecting this to be a tight encounter and it’s possible that extra-time and even penalties could be on the cards. We know that there will be no quarter given from a defensively-disciplined Roma team, with Under 2.5 Goals looking like a good shout for Europa League Bet Builders, with plenty of cards likely to be shown.