Next Saturday, 25th of October 2014, the powerful Roma will travel to Genoa to measure forces with the impressive Sampdoria side at Stadio Luigi Ferraris for round eight of the Italian Serie A, on a match during which the Lupi will need to be at their best to try and impose Samp their first defeat in eight matches.

After the nightmarish night at Turin two weeks ago, when Roma lost to Juventus on a match throughout whic the referee’s performance was heavily put into question by the capital city team’s officials, the Lupi smashed Chievo by 3-0 and potentiated the sacking of the former team’s manager, Eugenio Corini, who was already replaced in the job by Rolando Maran.

Roma will have a fairly complicated match before visiting Sampdoria during the weekend, as they will entertain the all-powerful Bayern Munich at Stadio Olimpico for the UEFA Champions League in the middle of the week. Rudi Garcia will need to impose an effective rotation system in his team in order to take something positive from both matches.

Roma’s campaign both on domestic and international level have been almost flawless so far and the team’s football style tends to be fairly attractive. Although the team currently has a fairly extensive injury list, Rudi Garcia has, so far, managed to make the best from the available players and it is fair to say that they are the most interesting team at Serie A at the moment.

The match against Sampdoria will certainly be an Herculean task for the Lupi, as their performances away from Stadio Olimpico are not as unblemished as when they play in front of their supporters.

As for Sampdoria, the historical Italian side is currently enjoying a fantastic moment this season and Mihajlovic’s labour of love is beginning to show. The Serbian manager took the helm of the team last season and he has, so far, managed to pass all his strength and enthusiasm to a team that was suffering a complicated moment before his arrival.

Sampdoria and Juventus are the only undefeated teams in Serie A so far and they will surely want to maintain their invincibility when they entertain Roma next Saturday. Last weekend, Sinisa Mihajlovic’s boys failed to get anything better than a draw from their visit to Cagliari, on a match they were leading by 2-0 on the 59th minute.

It is hard to name a favourite for next Saturday’s match, but, although Sampdoria have been impressive so far, Roma enjoy from a slight favouritism for the Luigi Ferraris’ clash.

Sampdoria

Stats: W-3 L-0 D-2

Recent Form - DWWWD

Roma

Stats: W-3 L-1 D-1

Recent Form - WLDWW

Possible Line-ups

Sampdoria (4-3-1-2) - Romero - De Silvestri - Silvestre - Gastaldello - Mesbah - Obiang - Palombo - Duncan - Gabbiadini - Bergessio - Okaka

Roma (4-3-3) - De Sanctis - Maicon - Astori - Mbiwa - Cole - De Rossi - Pjanic - Nainggolan - Gervinho - Totti - Destro

Prediction

Sampdoria 1 Roma 1