Porto vs Roma Prediction and Analysis: The Away Team Will Celebrate Victory
The Europa League match between Porto and Roma will take place at 00:45 on February 14th. Nghe An Newspaper analyzes the teams' form, provides football commentary, and predicts the score.
Latest Porto vs Roma team news
Since taking over as manager of FC Porto, Martin Anselmi has consistently favored a three-centre-back formation and is likely to continue using this tactic against AS Roma (a team that also tends to play with three centre-backs). Goalkeeper Diogo Costa is a reliable anchor behind the home team's 3-4-2-1 formation.
FC Porto will be without Ivan Marcano, Marko Grujic, and Martim Fernandes due to injury. Meanwhile, Nico Gonzalez (who scored the winning goal in the final group stage match) has joined Manchester City.
Despite failing to score in his last six matches, striker Samu Aghehowa remains FC Porto's number one hope in attack (he has scored 5 goals in the Europa League this season). Youngster Rodrigo Mora could also be used to support Aghehowa.
In defense, Brazilian center-back Otavio returns after suspension and could potentially displace Ze Pedro from the starting lineup. Defender Danny Namaso needs to play cautiously in the next match, as another yellow card will result in a suspension for the second leg.
On the other side of the pitch, two AS Roma players, Mats Hummels and Alexis Saelemaekers, are also facing a similar risk. Coach Ranieri rested Saelemaekers and Leandro Paredes in the weekend's match. However, both will return to the starting lineup in the next game (alongside Manu Kone, who has just completed his suspension after the match against Venezia).
New signings Devyne Rensch and Victor Nelsson are both available for the upcoming match. However, Lucas Gourna-Douath and Anass Salah-Eddine are not included in the visiting team's UEFA squad list.
Latest predicted lineups for Porto vs Roma
Porto:
Costa; Djalo, Perez, Otavio; Mario, Eustaquio, Varela, Moura; Pepe, Mora; Aghehowa
Rome:
Svilar; Mancini, Hummels, Ndicka; Saelemaekers, Kone, Paredes, Angelino; Dybala, Pisilli; Dovbyk
Latest football match prediction: Porto vs Roma
Having narrowly avoided early elimination, Porto just qualified for the play-offs, being among the top 16 teams in the Europa League group stage.
A hard-fought 1-0 victory against Maccabi Tel Aviv in the final matchday secured Porto's progression. A draw would have been enough for Braga to eliminate them.
New coach Martin Anselmi (from Mexico's Cruz Azul club) has had a successful debut. He helped Porto recover from their painful defeat against Olympiacos a week earlier.
Next, they were held to a 2-2 draw by Rio Ave in the Primeira Liga. Then they faced their rivals Sporting Lisbon last weekend. A dramatic 94th-minute equalizer from Danny Namaso helped Porto salvage a point, preventing Sporting from winning at the Dragao stadium for the first time in nine years.
Nevertheless, Porto is still going through a forgettable run in the domestic league. They are currently third, quite far behind the leaders, and have been eliminated from both domestic cup competitions. This is also the first time in the 21st century that the team has gone five consecutive league matches without a win.
"The Dragons" are determined to go far in the Europa League (despite their disappointing record of winning only 5 of their last 25 knockout matches in UEFA competitions, losing 16). However, 4 of those 5 wins came at home.
In terms of head-to-head record, FC Porto has a psychological advantage. They have eliminated AS Roma in all three previous encounters in European competitions, in the years: 1981/82, 2016/17, and 2018/19.
In their most recent encounter (2018/19 season), FC Porto won 4-3 after extra time. However, AS Roma are currently a formidable team, with their impressive form in European competitions (AS Roma won the 2022 Conference League, reached the 2023 Europa League final, and the semi-finals last season). Therefore, the Italian representative is perfectly capable of breaking the jinx.
In this year's Europa League group stage, AS Roma impressively finished higher than FC Porto. After a difficult group stage, a convincing victory against Eintracht Frankfurt in the final matchday helped Mourinho's team reach the "play-off" group – which opens the opportunity to face their rivals Lazio in the round of 16.
Similar to FC Porto, AS Roma is also in poor form in the domestic league. After their 1-0 victory against Venezia on Sunday, Roma is currently 9th in Serie A and has been eliminated from the Coppa Italia.
Before traveling to Portugal, AS Roma had only won 3 of their last 19 away matches in the Europa League. This is not a positive statistic ahead of their difficult away game against FC Porto.
Latest Porto vs Roma score prediction
Based on the above football analysis, we and leading football websites worldwide have provided our predictions for the match.Porto vs Romaas follows:
- Sportsmole:Porto 1-2 Roma
- WhoScore:Porto 1-1 Roma
- Our newspaper predicts:Porto 1-2 Roma
When and where can I watch Porto vs Roma live?
To watch the Porto vs Roma match live in the Europa League, taking place at 00:45 on February 14th, viewers can tune in to the following channels:K+ Sport,K+PMor online sports channels. We hope you enjoy watching football.
