Derby Della Capitale: AS Roma Host A SS Lazio Side in Crisis

For 90 minutes, twice a year, the entire city of Rome divide into two camps. Giallorossi and Biancocelesti.

Passion, rivalry and pure emotions control the Eternal city for a the length of a football game as the cities two sides lace boots of war at the Stadio Olimpico.

On Sunday, it’s time for the first Derby della Capitale of the season.

Unconditional love. Infinite hate. Nothing in between.

It’s game time —Roman style.

AS Roma

After a disastrous start to the campaign which saw the Roman side hitting rock bottom of the league table, Luciano Spalletti resigned as the club brought in former Chelsea and Juventus tactician, Claudio Ranieri.

After quite a turnaround, Roma once again slumped in form and collected three straight defeats which also happened to coincide with talismanic striker Francesco Totti’s injury absence.

Things have, however, started to fall back into place as ‘Tinkerman’ has abandoned his preferred 4-4-2 system to the more offensive minded 4-2-3-1.

I Lupi are coming into the game high on confidence after two consecutive victories in the domestic play against Bari and Atalanta along with qualification to the knock-out stages in the Europa League after beating FC Basel 2-1. On top of that, Er Pupone is once again firing on all cylinders after recovering from his knee operation.

A victory could see the capital club break into the top four for the first time this season considering on how well fourth-place Sampdoria does in their fixture against AC Milan.

Although things are anything but harmonious in the opponent’s camp, the players are aware that form counts for nothing on games such as Sunday night’s grand derby.

Possible starting XI (according to the Gazzetta)

Julio Sergio; Burdisso, Mexes, Juan, Riise; De Rossi, Pizarro; Perrotta, Menez, Vucinic; Totti

SS Lazio

To say that Lazio are a team in crisis is probably an understatement. Coach Davide Ballardini is under fire after the club’s extremely poor run in Serie A and is most likely to face the boot should his side fail to deliver on Sunday evening.

The club currently sits one point shy of a relegation spot and if changes aren’t implemented in the very near future, we could very well find the club in Italy’s second division come next season. Club president Claudio Lotito’s way of running the club leaves much to be desired as he usually tends to the been the club’s worst enemy.

The Biancocelesti are coming into the game with a shattered confidence after crashing out of the Europa League by a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Austrian side, Salzburg. On top of that, the Aquile haven’t managed a win since the second matchday – but should find some comfort in playing out two goalless draws against Napoli and Bologna in their past two outings.

The main issue of concern has been the offense. The Biancocelsesti have only found the back of the net on nine occasions while conceding 14. Had Goran Pandev not been frozen out of the squad due to his desire to leave the team, things might have looked a lot different today.

The relationship with the supporters have reached a breaking point and with Lotito fighting them rather than coming up with a sustainable solution, the crisis look to be far from over. On top of that, Ballardini can most likely count on the sack if he’s side fails to win the Roman derby which Lazio desperately hope will be the turning point of the season.

Possible starting XI (according to the Gazzetta)

Muslera; Diakite, Stendardo, Siviglia; Lichtsteiner, Brocchi, Baronio, Kolarov; Matuzalem; Zarate, Rocchi