Europa League: Brighton in Need of a Miracle Against Roma

Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. vs AS Roma

A banged-up Brighton squad will play host to Romelu Lukaku and the rest of Roma at Falmer Stadium for the second leg of their last-16 tie in the Europa League.

Roberto De Zerbi and his men face a colossal task to overcome a four-goal deficit without a handful of their key contributors. Fortunately for the Seagulls, they’ll have the support of their faithful fans, who can only hope and pray that their presence will be enough to pull off a miracle and produce winning Europa League 2024 results.

Meanwhile, expect Daniele De Rossi to park to bus at Brighton thanks to their commanding lead in aggregate. It is still up in the air if De Rossi will rotate his players, but as of now, Roma find themselves in a good position to advance to the quarterfinals.

Talking Points

Lukaku is making his mark

Romelu Lukaku has been the man for Roma in the Europa League, as he continues to spearhead the offense by scoring seven Europa League goals thus far.

The 30-year-old veteran has virtually scored in every Europa League match this season, and with seven goals already to his name, he is now just one goal shy of his record in a season in the competition, as his current Europa League record is eight goals for Everton in the 2014–15 campaign. Lukaku is also just two goals away from breaking Edin Dzeko’s Roma record of eight goals in a Europa League season.

With a four-goal advantage coming into their return leg with Brighton, it’s not unreasonable to expect Daniele De Rossi and his men to lay off the pressure offencively and focus on keeping a clean sheet. But it would be foolish for any adversary to give Lukaku or any of the Roma forwards some breathing room to work their magic.

After a 2-2 draw in Florence, Roma are currently holding on to fifth place and are in a tight race to qualify for the Champions League next season. Clubs like Atalanta and Napoli are breathing down their necks in the Serie A table, so having an enormous four-goal lead in aggregate against Brighton serves as a breath of fresh air.

Banged-up Brighton hoping for a miracle

Struggling to find their footing in the Premier League, battling ongoing injury problems, and suffering a 4-0 defeat at Roma in the first leg of their last-16 tie in the Europa League, it’s safe to say that the Seagulls are on the verge of collapsing.

They’ll play host to a surging Roma squad for their return leg in the Europa League in the next couple of days, but Roberto De Zerbi has already stated that Brighton “have not been ready” for their first season in Europe.

“It’s different playing one game per week and three games per week, a different sport. I repeated that a lot of times in press conferences earlier in the season and maybe we have not been ready, we have not organised everything in the best way.” De Zerbi stated.

The Seagulls have slipped down to tenth in the Premier League, the lowest position they’ve been in the top flight this season. And the main culprit for their decline is their depleted roster. Key players like James Milner, Joao Pedro, Jack Hinshelwood, Solly March, and Kaoru Mitoma are all out of commission for Brighton, and De Zerbi is left with a herculean effort to manage and rotate his depleted roster to face tough adversaries like Roma.

Roberto De Zerbi exclaimed, “It’s different in terms of how many players you have to bring into the squad, it’s different in everything—day off, organisation of medical staff. We are paying a big, big price, because it’s very tough to accept the defeat in Rome.”

History

Their upcoming tie will be only the second ever European meeting between these two sides. The Italian side, AS Roma, dominated the first leg of their last 16 bouts with a commanding 4-0 score line.  In the history of the Europa League, no side has ever overcome a four-goal deficit from the first leg to progress to the next stage of the competition.

Betting Tip

The Europa League 2024 betting odds claim the home team, Brighton, as the favourites to win the second leg of their last 16 bouts, while the surging Roma are the underdogs at 3.48 with a draw price of 3.36.

It’s understandable why SBOTOP have Brighton as the favourites, as it will be expected that Roma will stay on the defencive side and protect their four-goal lead. There will be no incentive for Roma to play an aggressive style of football and risk the possibility of counterattacks.

The Seagulls will come into the match with a banged-up roster, and with Roma playing the conservative route, it’s safe to assume that there won’t be many goals in this tie. Which is why my betting tip is total goals under 2.75 at 2.06.

 

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