Next Saturday, 17th of January 2015, the title contenders AS Roma will travel to the region of Sicily to measure forces with Palermo at Stadio Renzo Barbera for round 19 of the Italian Serie A, on a match that the Lupi need to win in order to prevent Juventus to roam freely at the top of the league table.

After a difficult and narrow win against Udinese, AS Roma didn’t manage to overcome their all-time rivals of SS Lazio at the Derby della Capitale last Sunday. It was a spectacular match, the one that took place at the beautiful Stadio Olimpico last weekend, one of those clashes that will certainly go directly to the hall-of-fame of Italian football. Lazio went to the break leading by 2-0 thanks to goals from their captain Stefano Mauri and from the Brazilian flamboyant player Anderson, who is one of the most pleasant surprises of Serie A so far. AS Roma had a fairly poor performance during the first-half, but their manager, Rudi Garcia, managed to rally the troops during the break and they initiated the second-half at full-speed. Their eternal captain, Il Bimbo d’Oro, Francesco Totti, was the maestro of his team’s amazing comeback, as he netted in both AS Roma’s goals in less than 20 minutes. Totti’s goals not only provided his team a valuable draw, they have also transformed him into the all-time topscorer of the Derby della Capitale, alongside with Dino da Costa, with 11 goals each.

The Lupi’s next weekend’s match at Palermo will definitely not be an easy one and Rudi Garcia is aware of that. AS Roma cannot concede any more slip-ups, otherwise they will risk letting Juventus extend their point lead at the top of the table.

As for Palermo, after their heroic walk of nine matches without a single defeat, they have sucumbed last Sunday at the hands of Fiorentina after a frantic clash that ended with an usual 4-3 on the scoreboard. Despite last weekend’s defeat, Giuseppe Iachini’s boys are enjoying a fantastic moment and they will certainly be a tough bone for AS Roma to chew next Saturday. For that particular clash, Palermo’s head coach will probably still not be able to rely on the services of the Swiss defender Fabio Daprela, who remains sidelined due to injury.

Despite Palermo’s particularly good moment, AS Roma are favourites for the upcoming match, nevertheless, it will certainly be a very close match until the final whistle.

Palermo

Stats: W-2 L-1 D-2

Recent Form - LWDWD

Roma

Stats: W-2 L-1 D-2

Recent Form - DWDWL

Possible Line-ups

Palermo (3-4-2-1) - Sorrentino - Muñoz - Gonzalez - Feddal - Morganella - Rigoni - Barreto - Lazaar - Maresca - Vazquez - Belotti

Roma (4-3-3) - De Sanctis - Maicon - Astori - Manolas - Holebas - De Rossi - Pjanic - Nainggolan - Iturbe - Totti - Ljajic

Prediction

Palermo 1 Roma 2