Roma and Feyenoord will cross paths once again when they meet at the Stadio Olimpico in the second leg of their Europa League playoff tie on Thursday.
The tie is hanging in the balance after a 1-1 draw at De Kuip last week, with Romelu Lukaku continuing his incredible Europa League run to clinch a draw for the Giallorossi.
While being slightly below par in Rotterdam, Daniele De Rossi and his side will have been delighted to leave the cauldron of De Kuip with a draw to take home.
Lukaku’s second-half equaliser could prove pivotal in terms of deciding the tie, and it extended his phenomenal Europa League run of scoring in 17 of his last 18 matches in the competition.
Performances and results have been largely positive since De Rossi replaced Jose Mourinho in the Roma dugout, as the former midfielder started with three wins before an unfortunate 4-2 loss to runaway Serie A leaders Inter Milan.
That remains their only defeat in six since De Rossi took over, as a positive draw in the first leg was followed up by a convincing 3-0 win over Frosinone at the weekend.
Form under De Rossi has seen Roma rise to sixth and leave many strong sides in their wake below them, but there is still a four-point gap between themselves and the top four.
Roma’s recent results over Feyenoord will also give them huge belief ahead of this second leg, as they progressed despite losing the first leg at De Kuip in the quarter-finals of this competition last season, on their way to the final.
Feyenoord were also the opponents Roma defeated in the inaugural Europa Conference League final back in 2022, as the Italians won their first piece of European silverware for 61 years.
The Dutch side will be sick of the sight of Roma, because since the advent of group stages in UEFA competitions, Roma are the only side to have ever beaten them in the knockout stages, doing so in the past two seasons and also in the 2014-15 campaign.
