Roma, Roma, Roma – Second Leg

By: travis | March 11th, 2009

Good day to all. It’s the second leg at Roma, and a massive fixture. A 1-0 cushion seems pretty good at this point, and while a win over a club from the Championship over the weekend is a good boost, I’ll be even more excited to see a strong performance today. You have to expect Roma playing much better today, so perhaps Arsenal will regret not adding to their one goal lead.

That aside, plenty to be excited about. The return of injured players is a huge boost, and despite not having Arshavin available it’s nice not knowing that Fran Merida is one of the first choices off the bench — no offense to the lad, hope he’ll be a great player. Wenger fancies an attacking style as well, something that is good to see:

“I will try to convince the players we want a positive attitude and not just sit back. As a team we are strong going forward. If we only defend we put ourselves in trouble.

“If we score we have a very, very strong chance to go through. So we will go into the game wanting to win it.

The last bit about scoring couldn’t be more true. Getting a goal on the road would require Roma to score three to win the fixture. Knowing that they are more than capable of doing that, and the fact that they’ll be keen on getting to a CL final hosted in Rome is a strong incentive for them. Defensively, Kolo Toure may be back as well, and fingers crossed that him and Gallas are still best buds. I don’t think they’ll sit back, but I would imagine Wenger will keep things very tight at the back, seeing as though this run is reminiscent of 2006, holding a 1-0 lead after the first tie and securing the tie with a scoreless draw in the second.

It’ll be an entertaining game to watch and here’s hoping for an Arsenal victory, as well as peace and quiet in Rome. Not that I’m expecting anything to happen, but you never know what could transpire when thousands of football fans drink a bit too much and congregate in one area. Leave thoughts and comments on the game before, during, and after below.