Grill the host on the fire pan

The Europa League last-16 race will see Portuguese giants Porto and Serie A outfit Roma go head-to-head in the first leg of their playoff tie on Thursday.

Roma travel to the Estadio do Dragao with bad memories, having lost all three of their previous meetings with Porto. This time, the winner of the tie will face either Athletic Bilbao or Roma's arch-rivals Lazio in the next round.

Latest Porto vs Roma team information

Since taking over at Porto, Martin Anselmi has deployed a three-man defence and is likely to stick with that system against a Roma side that tend to set up similarly. Goalkeeper Diogo Costa will be a reliable stopper behind the hosts' 3-4-2-1 formation.

Porto will be without Ivan Marcano, Marko Grujic and Martim Fernandes through injury, while Nico Gonzalez—who scored the winner in the final group game—has moved to Manchester City.

Up front, despite not scoring in the last six games, main striker Samu Aghehowa is still Porto's hope with five goals in the Europa League this season. Youngster Rodrigo Mora can also join in a supporting role.

In defence, Brazilian centre-back Otavio returns from suspension, potentially forcing Ze Pedro to give up his starting spot. Danny Namaso will also have to be careful, as another yellow card could see him miss the second leg.

On Roma's side, Mats Hummels and Alexis Saelemaekers are in a similar situation. Saelemaekers and Leandro Paredes were rested for last weekend's game but will return to the starting line-up, alongside Manu Kone—who has just served his suspension after the Venezia game.

New signings Devyne Rensch and Victor Nelsson are both available, but Lucas Gourna-Douath and Anass Salah-Eddine are not included in the visitors' UEFA squad.

Latest expected lineup Porto vs Roma

Porto:

Costa; Djalo, Perez, Otavio; Mario, Eustaquio, Varela, Moura; Pepe, Mora; Aghehowa

Roma:

Svilar; Mancini, Hummels, Ndicka; Saelemaekers, Kone, Paredes, Angelino; Dybala, Pisilli; Dovbyk

Latest football commentary Porto vs Roma

Almost having to stop early, Porto only just qualified for the play-off round when they were in the group of 16 teams ranked from 9th to 24th in the Europa League group stage.

A narrow 1-0 win over Maccabi Tel Aviv in the final match saw Porto through, as a draw would have seen them eliminated from the tournament by fellow countrymen Braga.

New coach Martin Anselmi, who has just arrived from Cruz Azul (Mexico), had a successful debut when helping Porto recover from a painful home defeat to Olympiacos a week earlier.

They then went on to draw 2-2 with Rio Ave in the Primeira Liga, before facing arch-rivals Sporting Lisbon last weekend. A dramatic 94th-minute equaliser from Danny Namaso earned Porto a point, denying Sporting a first win at the Dragao in nine years.

However, Porto are having a forgettable run in the league, finishing a distant third and out of both domestic cup competitions. More worryingly, this is the first time in the 21st century that they have failed to win five consecutive league games.

However, the Dragons are determined to go far in the Europa League, despite a disappointing record of just five wins in their last 25 knockout matches in UEFA competitions (losing 16). However, four of those five wins have come at home.

In terms of history, Porto has a psychological advantage when they eliminated Roma in all three previous encounters: in the 1981-82 Cup C2, the 2016-17 Champions League qualifiers, and the 2018-19 Champions League round of 16.

In the last time, Porto won 4-3 after extra time. But with their impressive recent form in the European arena, Roma can completely break the curse against the Portuguese representative.

The Italian capital team, one place above Porto in the group stage, won the Conference League in 2022, reached the Europa League final in 2023 and the semi-finals last season.

This season, despite almost being eliminated from the group stage, Roma had an impressive 2-0 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt in the final match to win a play-off spot, thereby opening up the opportunity to face rivals Lazio in the round of 16.

However, like Porto, Roma have also been in poor form domestically. After Sunday's 1-0 win over Venezia, they are ninth in Serie A and have been eliminated from the Coppa Italia.

After a long period of uncertainty, interim coach Claudio Ranieri—who will take charge until the end of the season—has brought some stability to Roma. The 73-year-old certainly wants to end his career with a trophy, but to do so, he must improve two worrying statistics:

- Ranieri has lost nine of his last 11 knockout matches in European competition.

- All three of his previous matches in charge of Roma in the Europa League ended in 2-3 defeats.

In addition, before traveling to Portugal, Roma had only won 3 of their last 19 away matches in the Europa League—a number that is not very encouraging against an experienced Porto in this arena.

Latest Porto vs Roma score prediction

Based on the above football comments, we and the world's leading football sites have given the following results for the Porto vs Roma match:

• Sportsmole: Porto 1-2 Roma

• WhoScore: Porto 1-1 Roma
• Our prediction: Porto 1-2 Roma

When and where to watch Porto vs Roma live?

To watch live the match Porto vs Roma in the Europa League taking place at 0:45 on February 14, viewers can watch on K+ Sport, K+PM or online sports channels. Wishing viewers happy moments of watching football.

Source: https://baodaknong.vn/nhan-dinh-du-doan-porto-vs-roma-nuong-chu-nha-tren-chao-lua-242636.html