Europa League: Basque Challenge for Juric’s Roma

AS Roma vs Athletic Bilbao

Serie A giants Roma and La Liga big hitters Athletic Bilbao meet in the first league match of the new UEFA Europa League format, on Thursday at the Stadio Olimpico.

The league phase runs until January 30^th and both teams will expect to qualify for the knockouts, and that’s what makes Europa League: Roma vs Athletic Bilbao a fascinating prospect. Whilst it’s a long and old competition, everybody wants to make a decent start and Ernesto Valverde’s Bilbao are on a good run, arriving in the Italian capital on the back of three league wins.

Meanwhile Ivan Juric stepped in as Roma boss only one week ago after the shock sacking of Daniele De Rossi, and he did pick up a win in his first game.

Now that he has had another three days to work with his players another big challenge comes; the Roma vs Athletic Bilbao betting odds say he should pick up a second victory, but Juric will not let his players underestimate the size of this task.

 

Talking Points

Good start for Juric in turbulent times

Roma beat early Serie A pacesetters Udinese on Sunday, and that maybe took some of the heat off the club owners who have suffered a serious backlash from fans since the sacking of De Rossi.

I Giallorossi sounded out long-time AC Milan boss Stefano Pioli for the job but he had already decided to head to Saudi with Al Nassr, and reports in Rome suggested they also considered Edin Terzic who has been out of work since he left Borussia Dortmund.

Croatian Juric comes with a good reputation after impressing at Hellas Verona and then guiding Torino to three mid-table finishes, but the fans are yet to be convinced and he needs to continue his promising start in Rome.

Juric inherits an experienced squad led by talismanic skipper Lorenzo Pellegrini, and established stars Paulo Dybala up front and Mats Hummels at the back.

The club’s summer marquee signing, Artem Dovbyk, scored the opener in Roma’s 3-0 win over Udinese; a first victory of the season which took I Giallorossi into the top half of the Serie A table.  

 

Bilbao on the march

Athletic Club have climbed up to third place in La Liga with 13 points from seven games, and momentum is certainly on Valverde’s side.

After an opening day draw with Getafe, Athletic Club beat Valencia but lost to title hopefuls Barcelona and Atletico Madrid both narrowly.

Since then, wins over Las Palmas, Leganes and Celta Vigo within a hectic seven days have catapulted the Basque side up to the top three; and they certainly have the weapons to improve on the fifth place finish last term. 

Gorka Guruzeta scored twice in Bilbao’s 3-1 victory over Celta and there were assists from forwards Alex Berenguer and Inaki Williams. With 24-year-old Spain star Oihan Sancet just behind the front three, this is a powerful attacking unit.

Another La Roja star, Nico Williams limped off at half-time in the midweek win over Leganes and he missed the match with Celta, so we’ll wait to see if the flying winger makes a recovery in time for the trip to Rome.

Valverde was understandably delighted with his team’s work, saying: “I can’t remember a week like this, where you have three La Liga games and you win all three. It was a crucial week. We went to Las Palmas a bit tight on points and we’ve picked up nine which will help us to start the Europa League in a good frame of mind.”

“It’s always good for strikers to score because it gives them confidence, although we don’t really mind who scores.”         

 

History

We don’t have much to work on in terms of head to head Roma vs Athletic Bilbao results as the only previous match, a friendly in 2019, ended in a 2-2 draw.  

In terms of recent form; Bilbao have won four games from six while Roma ended a sequence of four draws and a defeat with their 3-0 win over Udinese.  

 

Betting Tip

At SBOTOP odds of 1.87, I Giallorossi are the favourites to win this game with Bilbao at 3.47 and the draw at 3.05.

The hosts certainly had a boost with a comprehensive win over Udinese at the weekend but the Rome club are in a state of turmoil, certainly on the terraces, and the Basque club will do all they can to turn the crowd against the hosts. Bilbao are settled and on a good run, and I back them to pick up a result in Rome.

   

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