Thursday's opponent: the CSKA Sofia

CSKA is the team of the Bulgarian army and the most successful team in Bulgaria. Not to be confused with CSKA 1948 Sofia, born in 2015, from a split and using, not surprisingly, the stadium of Levski, historical rival of CSKA. We Roma supporters remember CSKA Sofia mainly for the second round of the 1983-84 Champions Cup, which reminds me of a beautiful moment with my mother who informed me, to me 5 years old, that my Roma was playing. He told me “Look, Roma are playing today” and I was super happy. Roma won 1-0 in Sofia, but used to the great results of that Roma, I was a little dissatisfied.

Yesterday, Stamen Belchev, the coach, was sacked and the team was temporarily handed over to assistant manager Dobromir Mitov.

They play with a 4231. They are a good team. They have good dribbling and running players up front and are solid defense. In general, they suffer from pressure, where we can be good at punching them even several times. Often the 4 in front, perhaps except Rodrigues and Yomov, forget to lend a hand to the defensive phase. Above all they push with the left-back, Mazikou, with Yomov on the same wing as the side. The most dangerous players in attack are: Henrique, the left forward, fast, good at dribbling and especially in assisting and Sinclair, the right forward, who usually dribbles, returning to the left to shoot. Busatto (the goalkeeper) is mainly specialized in outings.

The game with Young Boys taught us that no opponent should be underestimated in the Europa League. In fact, the opponents will want to show good qualities to the next coach. It is not a difficult challenge. We are far stronger. Above all, I want to see a good performance from Borja Majoral who needs to improve in helping us to get out of pressure and in distributing the game like a real offensive playmaker. Pedro and Pellegrini must also give him good opportunities and he must know how to exploit them. Respecting the name of Rome, we can and must win. Daje Roma!

Giordano Sepi