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Expected information about the match

Italy Serie A 27.Round

11.3 19:30

Stadium: Olimpico

Capacity: 82656

Turf: Grass

Distance: 307 km (191 mi.)

Roma AS

Aleksandar Kolarov will miss and it can be big blow for team

Aleksandar Kolarov - Defense (LB) - Regular player

29

28

1

0

1

2546

7

2

6

1

0

Edin Dzeko will miss and it can be big blow for team

Edin Dzeko - Attack (CF) - Regular player

28

25

5

1

3

2299

8

3

8

0

Daniele De Rossi will miss and it can be big blow for team

Daniele De Rossi - Midfielder (DM) - Regular player

15

12

8

5

3

1019

1

3

0

Konstantinos Manolas will miss and it can be big blow for team

Konstantinos Manolas - Defense (CB) - Regular player

25

3

4

0

2148

1

0

5

0

Team played extra time on Wednesday

First game of new signed coach

Eusebio Di Francesco was fired by Roma after Champions League elimination and Claudio Ranieri will make his debut against relegation battlers Empoli.

It has been a very underwhelming season, the midweek exit to Porto in extra time proved the final straw for the tactician, who was sacked on Thursday evening. Ranieri is flying in on Friday to take over as caretaker manager until the end of the season, a return to the club he has always supported.

The European exit was just one half of a week to forget for Roma, having also been convincingly beaten 3-0 in the Derby della Capitale by city rivals Lazio thanks to goals from Felipe Caicedo, Ciro Immobile and Danilo Cataldi. Aleksandar Kolarov also saw red in this fiery fixture against his former employers and is therefore suspended this week, along with Edin Dzeko and Federico Fazio.

Roma come into this game with a flurry of key players unavailable. Dzeko, Fazio and Kolarov are all out suspended, while Daniele De Rossi limped off against Porto, Cengiz Under and Javier Pastore are side-lined due to injury.

Roma should revert back to the 4-2-3-1 with Robin Olsen between the sticks, while Kostas Manolas will be partnered by one of Juan Jesus or Ivan Marcano in central defence. Davide Santon will fill Kolarov’s void at left-back with Alessandro Florenzi starting on the right. Young sensation Nicolò Zaniolo will probably be partnered by Steven Nzonzi and Bryan Cristante in midfield. Patrik Schick is looking for his first league goal of this calendar year and will get an opportunity to lead the line.

Empoli

Empoli sit one place above the relegation zone and come into this fixture following a six-goal thriller with Parma, in a game which saw them come back from behind on three separate occasions to claim a point courtesy of goals from Cristian Dell’Orco, Francesco Caputo from the spot and a Bruno Alves own goal in stoppage time, which incidentally cancelled out a goal he scored earlier that put Parma into a 3-2 lead.

Its unlikely Giuseppe Iachini will make many changes to his accustomed 3-5-2 formation, with on loan Fiorentina goalkeeper Bartlomiej Dragowski keeping his place in the team ahead of Ivan Provedel. Veteran Matias Silvestre forms a three-man defence with Frederic Veseli and Dell’Orco. Giovanni Di Lorenzo and club captain Manuel Pasqual should flank a three-man midfield of Ismael Bennacer, Rade Krunic and Afriyie Acquah, with former Roma man Salih Ucan available as a substitute. Top scorer Caputo will continue to be partnered by Diego Farias, so January loan signing Dmitri Oberlin will again have to settle for a place on the bench.

Stat fact: The 1-1 draw shared between the sides during the 2014-15 campaign was the only time Empoli managed to gain a point in the league away at Roma since the turn of the millennium, with Roma winning the other seven encounters.