Next Wednesday, 29th of October 2014, Roma will measure forces with the newcomers of Cesena at the emblematic Stadio Olimpico for the round nine of the Italian Serie A, on a match of the utmost importance for the capital city team, especially after their two consecutive slip-ups both on domestic and international competitions.

It is hard to believe still today that Roma was smashed 7-1 by Bayern Munich for the UEFA Champions League at Stadio Olimpico last week, but it happened in fact. Rudi Garcia’s boys weren’t able to cope with the German champions’ powerful first-half display and went to the break losing by five goals to nil. Roma tried a different approach during the second part of the match and, although it worked for some time, it just wasn’t not enough to withstand Guardiola’s men game flow.

If that painful moment wasn’t enough, Roma didn’t manage to get anything better than a draw from their visit to Stadio Luigi Ferraris. The Lupi failed to overcome a highly organized Sampdoria team, who has been probably the most pleasant surprise of the Italian Serie A so far this season, as they remain unbeaten after eight matches. Roma took control of the match but not even their 20 goals attempts and high percentage of ball possession were enough to dismantle Sinisa Mihajlovic’s fierce tactical approach.

The match against Cesena next Wednesday presents a good opportunity for the Luppi to return to wins, especially if we consider the visitors’ recent poor form. For the match, Rudi Garcia will probably still not be able to rely on the contribution of Castan, Borriello, Strootman, Keita, Balzaretti and Maicon, all sidelined due to injury.

As for Cesena, their return to the Italian football top tier has been far from being a walk in the park, since the team is currently fourth from bottom with just one win in eight matches. Last weekend, Cesena lost at home to Inter on a match they were forced to play with ten men for sixty minutes, after their goalkeeper Nicola Leali was sent off during the first-half.

The team’s motivation levels are down low, especially if we think that the last time they won a Serie A match was on the first round of the competition, when they entertained Parma at Stadio Dino Mannuzi, and probably a clash against a powerful team such as Roma is not the best way to rally the troops in order to return to good results.

Roma are favourites for the next Wednesday’s match and they should not experience many difficulties to overcome Cesena, who are definitely going through a very complicated period, especially when playing away from home.

Roma

Stats: W-1 L-2 D-2

Recent Form - DLWLD

Cesena

Stats: W-0 L-3 D-2

Recent Form - LLDDL

Possible Line-ups

Roma (4-3-3) - De Sanctis - Astori - Torosidis - Mbiwa - Holebas - Florenzi - Pjanic - De Rossi  - Gervinho - Totti - Ljajic

Cesena (4-1-3-2) - Agliardi - Capella - Volta - Lucchini - Renzetti - De Feudis - Zé Eduardo - Giorgi - Cascioni - Djuric - Marilungo

Prediction

Roma 3 Cesena 0