Whatever happens at the Olimpico on Wednesday night, one of the contingents representing Italy in Europe will be going away empty-handed, heads bowed.

Roma are the favourites going into this game, after Seydou Keita dramatically headed home Alessandro Florenzi's superb corner with just a few minutes remaining in the first leg. Following Josip Ilicic's first-half opener for Fiorentina, Adem Ljalic failed to equalise for the visitors with a penalty miss and had it not been for Keita's powerful header, Ljalic wouldn't have been very popular with his supporters going into this game.

This is the fifth meeting between these two sides this season and it's fair to say that they're probably sick of the sight of each other. While both have only a single win each, there will have to be a victor for tonight's game to finish. This is also only the second time out of the five that the fixture has been played at the Olimipico, with Fiorentina also earning a home win and draw in the Coppa Italia and Serie A, respectively. 

Rudi Garcia's Roma are not going through a particularly convincing patch of form, thus far going just 10 days short of a month without a win, when they outwitted Feyenoord at De Kuip at the last stage of this competition. They haven't endured the best preparation, mentally or physically, going into tomorrow's encounter, losing at home to surprise package Sampdoria on Monday night. 

Fiorentina, on the other hand, are absolutely flying at the moment and sit just four points behind third-placed Lazio. After defeating Italy's traditionally three most successful teams in Milan, Internazionale and Juventus in the last month, things are definitely looking up for La Viola. Vincenzo Montella's side have not only already moved on from the outbound Juan Cuadrado on transfer deadline day, but look to have a real gem on their hands in Mohamed Salah, the young Egyptian on loan from Chelsea, as part of the aforementioned Cuadrado deal.

Salah has six goals in his first eight appearances for his new club, including a wonderful brace against reigning Serie A champions and league leaders, Juventus. He will have a big say in Fiorentina's fate tomorrow night, without a doubt, having set up Ilicic's opener in the first leg.

The Roma midfield that begun the season on fire has slowly fizzled out recently, with Gervinho, the star of the capital at the start of the campaign, becoming less and less influential on a team struggling for inspiration at the minute. 

TEAM NEWS

Roma, the hosts, will be without the suspended Radja Nainggolan, who has accumulated too many bookings in Europe thus far, meaning he will miss this game. The Giallorossi are also missing Maicon and Leandro Castan through respective thigh and head injuries.

Fiorentina are without top scorer Mario Gomez, Giuseppe Rossi and Federico Bernardeschi through injury too.

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About the author
Cian Woulfe
I am a keen enthusiast in both English and Dutch football, with Chelsea and Vitesse Arnhem the object of my desires. I also have a real soft spot for Rafael Nadal.