THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi II

[Carlo Romano]

Johnny, you're not the only one. My work atmosphere is mega madness just now and I'll probably miss the match too. In fact, I may not even get online into next week...

We have been known to rise to the occasion when we play one of the "Big Three" and with luck, an away draw is not beyond us. Even with Dunderhead Doni playing!

[Lupa]

Is Riise back for this game? He's scored at the San Siro a couple of times, so maybe he's due another one, assuming he plays.

[Italiamia]

[ASR1927]

So today is the day we find out who Roma is facing in the next round of the UEFA Champions League! The draw is at 11:00 AM GMT Edzo,Carlo,Tom and anyone one else residing in Ireland or the U.K. 6:00 for people in the East Coast of the US and Canada and so on. Just to remind you the possible opponents are...

Shakhtar, Schalke, Tottenham, ManU, Real, Chelsea, Barcelona

From left to right is I'd say the order of preference for most of us here. However whoever we get in the draw I say fuck it. The boys do tend to rise to the occasion. Once the draw is over Milan is all we have to worry about then the break so let fate bring on whoever and let's get 3 points this weekend.

Forza Roma

[ASR1927]

[Lupa]

That worked out well I think.

[ASR1927]

From forzaroma.info the squad list for tomorrow... no Vucinic.


2 CICERO JOAO DE CESARE (Cicinho)
3 Paolo Castellini
4 JUAN SILVEIRA DOS SANTOS
5 Philippe Mexes
7 DAVID MARCELO CORTES PIZARRO
8 ADRIANO LEITE RIBEIRO
10 FRANCESCO TOTTI
11 Rodrigo Ferrante Taddei
16 DANIELE DE ROSSI
17 John Arne Riise
22 Marco Borriello
23 LEANDRO Greco
27 Julio Sergio Bertagnoli
29 Nicolas Andres Burdisso
30 SIMPLICIO Fabio Henrique
32 DONIEBER MARANGON ALEXANDER (Doni)
33 Matteo Brighi
40 tender Alex DANIEL PENA
77 Marco Cassetti
Aleandro Rosi 87
89 Okaka Chuka Stefano
94 Jeremy Menez

[Italiamia]

[Deini]

Grazie Gio.. Call me Johnny btw instead of my nickname as Carlo is doing. Thing is, her actual birthday is on December 25th but tomorrow there is a party for the family. Ah well, will be online with my phone to check the score.

And it's a really nice draw for us.

[RomaShield27]

Shakhtar, huh. Nice. To be honest, I was hoping we'd draw Barcelona. Cassetti and Taddei would tear Messi and Xavi to shreds. But feck it, we probably got the best draw we could hope for, but having said that it certainly won't be easy as they are a good team and going to play them in their stadium, especially as its the second-leg, will be a very big test. They've already beaten the Arsewipe there. We should be able to get through but with Roma you just never know.

Shite, no Vucinic for Milan. That is a big blow. So looks like it will be Menez-Borriello-Totti upfront, but I wonder if Ranieri will go for something a little more defensive and play an extra midfielder in place of one of them (Menez). Hopefully not. Lupa, Riise will be playing alright, he is back to full fitness and raring to go.

And what is the story with Pizarro? Is he not back to full fitness? RomaNews have him on the bench, and is waffling on about how he has falling out of favour with Ranieri, which I find hard to believe. Fitness reasons aside, I can't see why he would not be in the side ahead of both Greco and Simplicio, unless he has had a row with Ranieri or something.

[SPqR]

Of course Shaktar is a better draw than we could have paid for, but they are 17-1-1 on the year in league play...tough to measure where they are at, but they don't lose a whole lot

[red]

Worth mentioning that there isn't a Ukranian league fixture between now and the start of March, I think, so Shakhtar should be short of match sharpness when Roma play them.

[RomaShield27]

Or else they will be nice and fresh, injury free and raring to go? Hmm. I'm sure they can play a few friendlies before then, too.

[red]

There's no substitute for real matches.

[pocari_fenrir]

[ASR1927]

More news for tomorrow. All the Roma sites (romanews,laroma24 etc) are saying Cassetti is out as well as Vucinic. Does that mean we will see Cicinho in the starting lineup?



Edit: forzaroma.info has this as our probable starting 11,
Roma (4-4-2): 32 Doni, 29 Burdisso, 5 Mexes, 4 Juan, 17 Riise, 94 Menez, 16 De Rossi, 7 Pizarro, 11 Taddei, Totti 10, 22 Borriello

Corriere dello Sport has the same lineup just swap in Simplicio for Pizarro.

[maro]

Or Burdisso at right back? You know Claudio loves that option.

[pocari_fenrir]

for those that enjoy a tactical talk, i thought this was a good piece that questions whether or not Ranieri knows what he's doing.

http://www.football-italia.net/blogs/jh128.html

i say we have a tough game ahead of us tomorrow, apart from the injuries. Ranieri has his work cut out for him for us to line-up against Milan tactically and not concede like madness. Milan are working more and more compact and we're still all over the place. in Totti we trust or what??

[ASR1927]

[stefano]