It’s not every day that father clashes with son on the football field. Even though Roma coach Eusebio Di Francesco is on the sidelines these days rather than charging about the midfield, there’s no doubt he’ll want to get one over on his talented offspring Federico, Bologna winger and one of the dangermen facing Roma on Easter Saturday.
Di Francesco’s boy was excellent in the Giallorossi’s tight 1-0 home win against Bologna in October, as Roberto Donadoni’s side ran Roma close at the Stadio Olimpico. It took a sensational volley from Stephan El Shaarawy — just a few days before he led the famous 3-0 thumping of Chelsea — to separate the sides, and afterwards Federico was praised by his father, a Scudetto winner with Roma in 2001.
“He’s always been more technically gifted than me,” Di Francesco Sr. said of Jr.
With Barcelona awaiting Roma at Camp Nou on Wednesday, the Roma manager will make changes, one of which will see Bruno Peres take Alessandro Florenzi’s place at right-back. The defensive lapses that have characterised Peres’ time in Rome give Federico a fighting chance of getting one over on his old man — although Florenzi’s recent form on the right flank hasn’t exactly inspired confidence either.
Despite the official protests to the contrary, all eyes are on Wednesday night and Camp Nou; Easter Saturday’s more prosaic clash is something that Roma fans want out of the way before the main event. Nonetheless three points are needed if they want to keep their grip on third place and hold off Champions League chasing Inter Milan and Lazio.
Roma are miles behind leaders Juventus and Napoli, but four points ahead of Inter and five away from city rivals Lazio. Saturday’s match is the first of seven in three weeks which includes both Barca clashes and the “away” Rome derby. Should they come out the other side of this spell with a similar gap intact then they will have more or less guaranteed themselves a place in the Champions League for next season.
Di Francesco will likely rest Edin Dzeko, who played twice for Bosnia in the international break, and give Patrik Schick a run out. After a mediocre middle part of the season Dzeko has come alive again in recent weeks with a man-of-the-match display at Napoli and the goal against Shakhtar Donetsk that set up the quarterfinal with Barca. Schick has struggled with injury and form, and needs game time if he is to justify the club-record fee Roma paid for him last summer.
Schick is yet to score a Serie A goal for Roma, and only thing his time in the Italian capital is noted for is that horrendous miss in the dying seconds of their 1-0 defeat Juventus before Christmas. However he comes back to Italy after a decent spell with his national team, having scored one and set up another for Miachael Krmencik in the Czech’s 4-1 comeback win against China in the China Cup third-place playoff.
Lorenzo Pellegrini is out after picking up a calf injury during Italy’s midweek draw with England at Wembley — although he should be back for Barca — causing a problem for Di Francesco and Kevin Strootman. The Dutchman was supposed to be rested ahead of Barcelona, but will now have to get through Saturday’s match unscathed if he wants to face Messi and company.
El Shaarawy will probably take the place of Diego Perotti to the left of Schick, and Cengiz Under will sit the Bologna game out with a similar muscular problem to Pellegrini.
However Roma’s starting backline — apart from Florenzi — will take the field at Bologna, with rising star Alisson looking for his 19th clean sheet of a stellar season in goal, and Kostas Manolas and Federico Fazio bumping up against Roma old boy Mattia Destro. They’ll also have to keep an eye on the tricky winger trying to impress his dad.
Terry is based in Rome and is ESPN FC’s AS Roma blogger. Twitter: @T_Daley
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