Lazio and Roma Battle for Spot in Next Year's Champions League
Published on April 9th, 2018 - 3:50pm ESTWritten By: Ariel Noel
One of the new rules being implemented for the 2018-19 edition of the UEFA Champions League is that the top four European member associations, and at the moment those are Spain, England, Germany and Italy, get four guaranteed group stage spots in the tournament. This is an exciting development for Italy, who previously held two guaranteed spots and one playoff spot. The Italian Serie A has Juventus, who made it to the Champions League final twice in the last three years, to thank for being the fourth most successful league in Europe.This brings us to the current state of affairs in the Italian first division, where this Sunday third place Roma face their bitter rivals Lazio, currently fourth in the standings. Both teams are on 60 points with seven games left in the season, and Inter Milan, who are visiting 9th place Atlanta on Saturday, breathing down their necks with 59 points acquired so far.
This should be a heated affair between two clubs who share their home ground, Stadio Olimpico, and are both having a very good season domestically and in Europe. Roma went far in the Champions League, but are now on the brink of elimination at the hands of Barcelona in the tournament quarter-finals after going down 4-1 in the first leg at Camp Nou. Lazio are deep in the Europa League, where they have a 4-2 lead in the quarter-finals vs. Austrian champions Red Bull Salzburg. Both Rome-based clubs play their second leg European matches mid week.
The odds for the upcoming Serie A match are:
Source: Bet365
Time Stamp: April 9th, 2018 - 3:17pm EST
Odds Subject to Change
Lazio: 13/8
Draw: 11/5
Roma: 9/5
To finish in top 4:
Lazio: 2/7
Roma: 4/11
Inter Milan: 4/5
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Lazio, due to the fact that they will have more supporters on Sunday, are the slight favourites to win the upcoming Derby della Capitale. Lazio are also the favourites to finish the season among the top 4 and qualify for Champions League group stage, but both of these sets of odds are very close.
The players to watch are Lazio's Ciro Immobile, the current top scorer in the Italian league, and Roma's Bosnian star forward Edin Dzeko.
Earlier in the season when the two teams met in the league, Roma won with the score of 2:1.
Enjoy the match everyone, it should be a good one!
The kick off is at 8:45pm local time.
