Roma started the season very confidently, having won the first three matches of the championship in a bright attacking style. The Italian journalists hastily included Jose Mourinho’s team among the contenders for the scudetto. However, Roma could not maintain such a pace throughout the first lap. By the start of the 16th round, the Romans are on the fifth line in the table, being 11 points behind the leader of Napoli. They are six points away from the Champions League zone, which the Gialorossi are definitely betting on. With Fiorentina, Juventus and Lazio being still in the table below, they also have plans to finish in the top four. In the last round Roma lost 0:1 away to Bologna, thus suffering their third defeat in the last five league games.
Last week Betis closed the issue of reaching the 1/16 finals of the Europa League. Manuel Pellegrini’s charges defeated Ferencvaros (2:0), which guaranteed the team’s participation in the playoffs and the match against Celtic on December 9th is no longer of any importance. The team successfully started in the King’s Cup, where at the first stage the “white-greens” taught football lessons to the modest “Alicante” (4:0) and advanced to the next stage of this tournament. In 15 rounds of the current La Liga championship, Betikos have recorded eight successful matches and three peaceful outcomes, which corresponds to 27 points and the fifth position in the standings. In the last two rounds the guests defeated Elche (3:0) and Levante (3:1). Today Sabali, Camaras, Pessella, Montoya and Bravo, who has a muscle injury, will not be able to enter the field.
