AS Roma vs. Chelsea FC, 3:1

AS Roma’s coach Luciano Spalletti is fighting to hold onto his job with the side from the capital city of Italy. Facing a rampant Chelsea won’t make his survival any easier. Roma's inspirational captain Francesco Totti is a doubt for Tuesday after he missed the Juventus match because of pain in the knee he had surgery on last season. Italy midfielder Alberto Aquilani also looks set to miss out again with the thigh problem he sustained in the 1-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge two weeks ago. Chelsea have seven points from their three matches and are three points ahead of Cluj. Nicolas Anelka is expected to be in the starting line up with Didier Drogba likely to warm the bench. All of Ashley Cole, Ricardo Carvalho, Michael Essien and Michael Ballack will also miss the trip to Rome. Since their creditable 0-1 loss at Stamford Bridge two weeks ago Roma have shown very little to suggest that they are going to be able to keep Chelsea at bay. The result should go the way of the form team Chelsea by as many as three goals. REVIEW: For the first quarter of an hour Chelsea were well on top with Juventus unable to find any rhythm. From then on Chelsea appeared to treat this match as a practice ground exercise expecting the goals to flow in without any effort. Roma, who were not expected to come anywhere close to winning, began to play with authority and dominated the match from the first quarter of an hour onwards. It became a ‘practice session’ that had gone horribly wrong. Just after the half hour mark, Deco received his first of two yellow cards when he brought down Francesco Totti. From the free kick by Cicinho that had the Chelsea players standing and watching former Chelsea player Christian Panucci beat Petr Cech from close range. In an effort to get back into the game Didier Drogba and Juliano Belletti were brought on at half time. A great strike from Mirko Vucinic about twenty two metres out just after the break beat Petr Cech to double Roma’s lead. Roma began to play with authority and confidence. A great solo effort of about sixty metres by Vucinic after John Mikel Obi had given the ball away just outside the Roma penalty area resulted in his second goal of the night. Francesco Totti was taken off with the score at 3-0. Roma then lost something of their bite in the midfield allowing Chelsea some possession in the midfield. John Terry gave the Londoners some hope when he easily slotted home from close range with fifteen minutes to go. It was too little too late. Shortly after that Deco was sent off after having received his second yellow card of the night.

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