AS Roma to host Barcelona in Champions League showdown

AS Roma took part in their last training ahead of a Champions League battle against Barcelona on Tuesday with little doubt about how important the match would be for the team.

Roma have finished second in Serie A for the last two seasons but still there is still a clear gap between themselves and Europe’s top clubs, despite the addition of Edin Dzeko and Mohamed Salah.

Barcelona’s visit to the Stadio Olimpico on Wednesday, which kicks off their Champions League title defence, comes just under a year after Roma lost 7-1 at home to Bayern Munich in the same competition.

The Bavarians sliced through the Roma defence almost at will as they scored five goals in a bewildering half hour spell in the first half.

Roma went on to finish third in the group after taking one point in two games off Manchester City while domestically they have come up short in matches against Juventus, with three defeats in their last four league meetings,

With that in mind, Garcia has already made it clear that he would be happy to finish second in a group that also includes Champions League regulars Bayer Leverkusen and Belarus champions BATE Borisov.

“Barcelona is a great team, current champions, who have won the first three matches in their championship. We don’t need to say great things about this team because everybody knows them, and we know if they are not the best in the world then they are one of the best,” Garcia said at a news conference.

“Tomorrow we will play with humility but also with our ambitions . We want to qualify and to qualify there are six matches that we will always give our best in order to gain points,” he said.

“The point is not to stop (Lionel) Messi or Neymar or (Andres) Iniesta but for everyone to sacrifice everything for a great match,” affirmed midfielder Daniele de Rossi.

“We need to play as a team, united, and to help each other, because we have seen over the years what Messi can do and that is why we need to be united,” he said.

“As Daniele said we don’t have a plan, anti-Messi, anti-Suarez, anti-Neymar, anti-Iniesta, we could put all the Barcelona team,” Garcia added.

“I agree with Daniele, things will be resolved if we work collectively in defence and attack. Obviously we do not intend to defend for the whole match, we know there will be moments where we will suffer and as Daniele said we need to help each other but also use the ball well in order to make things difficult for this team,” Garcia said.

The match takes Barcelona coach Luis Enrique back to the club where he spent an unimpressive season in 2011/12, when Roma were clearly in transition.

The two sides last met 13 years ago, again in the Champions League second group stage, when they drew 1-1 in Barcelona and Roma won the return 3-0 with Luis Enrique in the Barcelona side.

Incredibly, there is one playing survivor from those games – Roma playmaker Francesco Totti who will be 39 at the end of the month.