AS Roma vs Fiorentina Italian Serie A - January 25, 2015

AS Roma vs Fiorentina - Italian Serie A

January 25, 2015 - 11:45 PM (GMT+4.00)

Artemio Franchi, Florence

Fiorentina team have been doing well recently and it shows in the tables as they hold an impressive 6th position after 19 games played. With a deadly attack countered by a solid defense, Fiorentina have what it takes to match-up with the big boys of Italian football. 3 straight wins in all competitions has put a pep in their step to kick-off the new year. Coming off a fine 3-1 Coppa Italia win at home against the visiting Atalanta, Fiorentina has fans filling to the brim with hope ahead of Sunday’s deadly clash with Roma. The attack led by Mario Gomez and Juan Cuadrado will create problems for the Roma back-line. With Karim Babacar coming off the bench, Fiorentina have a good chance here to claim a point from the seemingly tired visiting club who have played a thick schedule this season. Look for them to play a more defensive approach with sneak attacks filtered in here and there throughout the night as per their forte. They have allowed a measly 7 goals to opponents in their 9 home games in league play. Unfortunately, their offense struggles at home, where they should be at their best, putting away only 11 goals over these 9 games. With 6 straight losses to Roma overall over their last 6 meetings, Fiorentina will have to shake off the bad luck accompanying them if they are to obtain any glory at home this Sunday.

AS Roma are the 2nd best team in Italian football this season. They have certainly found a way to dominate again after many questionable seasons. Unluckily for them, Juventus team are even deadlier meaning Roma need to win every match from here on out or they will just keep falling further behind the league leader. All was going according to plan until they tied 2 straight league games, costing them precious points in the race for the title. This has been blamed on a thick schedule with lack of fitness within the squad as a result. No excuse for a club with so many dynamic weapons at its disposal. In their most recent match, Roma was taken to Extra Time against Empoli in the Coppa Italia. They eventually saw the challengers off with a goal from Danielle De Rossi in the 114th minute of extra time winning it 2-1. He is clearly a vital cog in Roma’s plans to take 1st place as he leads the team from the midfield. He will look to find forward Ljajić, who has been doing well with 6 goals on the year, creating from the back as Roma seek ways around the stifling Fiorentina defense. With 10 goals scored as well as 8 allowed on the road in league play this season, Roma are destined for a grind here as both teams play defense very well in this respective scenario. They have literally lost only 6 times to Fiorentina over 42 historical meetings. Roma will most likely come out on top in a 1-0 or 2-0 fashion depending on how fired up they are to halt Fiorentina’s climb up the tables.

Probable lineups:

AC Fiorentina: Tatarusanu – Tomovic, Rodriguez, Basanta – Joaquin, Fernandez, Pizarro, Valero, Pasqual – Cuadrado, Gomez.

AS Roma: De Sanctis – Maicon, Manolas, Yanga-Mbiwa, Holebas – Pjani?, de Rossi, Nainggolan – Iturbe, Totti, Ljajic.

You can watch the match here: Link 1 , Link 2 [Live Scores]

 

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Algeria vs South Africa Africa Cup of Nations - January 19, 2015

Algeria vs South Africa - Competition: Africa Cup of Nations, Group C

South Africa team did not qualify for the last World Cup and were even kicked out as hosts on group stage in the 2014 African Nations Championship. Considering that South Africa had won the Africa Cup four times in the past, the last years were obviously very disappointing for them, they also did not survive the group stage of the 2010 World Cup in their own country. But at least they managed to stay unbeaten in a 2015 Africa Cup qualifying group with Nigeria, Kongo and Sudan and are meanwhile undefeated in eleven games since March 2014. Shakes Mashaba, who became national coach in July 2014, nominated mostly players from teams of the South African PSL. Striker Tokelo Rantie plays in England for the Championship side AFC Bournemouth, defender Anele Ngcongca for the Belgium team KRC Genk. Due to a knee injury defender Patrick Phungwayo has been ruled out of the Africa Cup.

Algeria played a very good World Cup in summer, even almost defeated world champions Germany when got beaten in the Round of 16 not before extra time. Most players of the young side were born and educated in France and since Vahid Halilhodzic retired after the World Cup, they now also have a French coach in Christian Gourcuff. The ‘Fennecs’ stand for an offensive short passing game and they do have strong offensive players like Sofiane Feghouli (Valencia), Yacine Brahimi (Porto), El Arbi Hillel Soudani (Zagreb), Islam Slimani (Sporting) or Taider. On the other side their defence is not the most solid and with Essaïd Belkalem (Trabzon) an important central defender will miss the Africa Cup 2015 due to an injury. Algeria won the first five games in the qualification, lost the only match in Mali when were already qualified.

Match date: 19 January 2015
Kick Off Time: 19:00 GMT
Venue: Estadio de Mongomo 

You can watch the match here: Link 1 , Link 2 [Live Scores]

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Real Madrid vs Atletico Madrid 2-2 Highlights 15-01-2015 Copa del Rey

Real Madrid vs Atletico Madrid
Competition: Copa del Rey
Match date: 15 January 2015
Venue: Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid
On aggregate: Real Madrid 2 – 4 Atletico Madrid 

Goals:  

Real Madrid – Sergio Ramos 20' // Cristiano Ronaldo 54'
Atletico Madrid – Fernando Torres 1' // Fernando Torres 46'

Real yet again fails to surpass the hurdle of Atletico Madrid yet again as this time they only managed a draw from this match. Real Madrid’s blazing form from last year didn’t last as they are loosing match after match. In the Copa Del Rey, the first meeting between them ended in a comfortable 2-0 win for Atletico Madrid and now that that the match is played Real’s home’s ground, they only managed to get a draw. More accurately Atletico got the lead twice in this match and in the end all Real did was equalized. With this draw Real Madrid’s Copa Del Rey mission of this season came to stop. Atletico will be going forward to meet with FC Barcelona (most probably) in their next match.

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Real Madrid vs Espanyol 3-0 Highlights 10-01-2015 La Liga

Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid- 10 January, 2015 - Spanish Primera Division - 15.00 UK KO

Real Madrid 3-0 Espanyol:

1-0 James 12' // 2-0 Bale 28' // 3-0 Nacho 76'

Spanish Primera Division Giant Real Madrid successfully finished another match of them against Espanyol. In this 10th January, 2015 match Real Madrid won by 3 - 0 against Espanyol where James, Bale & Nacho scored goal for Real Madrid.

Definitely, Real Madrid is the best combination team of the world and even it called like best XI of the world as well. It’s really a team of galactico where have football like Gareth Bale, Christiano Ronaldo, James Raudriguez, Benzema, Kross, Khedira and so others. They played very fast football with bridling forward which combination make Real unique around the world comparing any club or, countries team.

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Udinese vs AS Roma Italian Serie A 06-01-2015

Udinese vs AS Roma
Competition: Italian Serie A
Match date: Tuesday, 6 January 2015
Kick Off Time: 11:30 GMT
Venue: Stadio Communale Friuli, Udine, Italy

Udinese team have been one of the harder teams to predict this season. With 6 wins, 4 draws, and 6 defeats through 16 Serie A matches, their inconsistency has made them a headache for bettors and tipsters alike. For example, they have picked up massive wins over SSC Napoli, Lazio Rome, and Inter while at the same time falling in shocking  defeat to lower-tier clubs like Torino and Hellas Verona. While their home form has been solid this season with 14 points through 8 league games, they have taken just 1 point from their last 3 as hosts. While ever-reliable Antonio Di Natalie scored on all 3 of those occasions, it wasn’t enough as the defence conceded 7 total goals through that stretch. The diminutive Italian is always a threat when on the field, and he now has 8 goals in the Italian Serie A this season – good for 2nd place in the top scorers chart (tied with 3 others). However, he has been held safely in check by Roma in their last 3 league meetings, and if the hosts hope to stand any chance of the upset this midweek, Di Natalie must impose his will on the stern Giallorossi defense.

AS Roma enter the new year at 3 points adrift the league-leading and reigning champion, Juventus FC. The title race was always going to come down to the 2 Italian heavyweights, and AS Roma can do themselves a big favor here with a tough road win. They did conquer the Zebrette last season in both league meetings, but neither win came easy for Roma, as they barely held on at home and required a late second-half goal to claim all of the spoils at the Stadio Friuli. Furthermore, they possibly face some worrying absences this midweek, with Francesco Totti looking very likely to miss while it is uncertain if Mattia Destro will make it back in time. Coupled with the loss of Gervinho and Seydou Keita to the Africa Cup of Nations, their roster will be seriously depleted this Tuesday. However, they will return both Davide Astori and Miralem Pjanic from suspension, and their midfield and defence will once again be loaded with quality and talent. 

Probable lineups:

AS Roma: De Sanctis – Maicon, Manolas, Astori, Holebas – Pjanic, de Rossi, Nainggolan – Iturbe, Destro, Ljajic.

Udinese: Karnezis – Wague, Danilo, Bubnjic – Widmer, Allan, Guilherme, Pasquale – Kone, Fernandes – Di Natale.

You can watch the match here: Link 1 , Link 2 [Live Scores]

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Liverpool vs Leicester 2-2 Highlights 01-01-2015 Premier League

Liverpool vs Leicester City
Competition: Premier League
Match date: 1 January 2015
Venue: Anfield, Liverpool

Liverpool’s terrible form continues as they yet again fails to win. Although they ended the year with a win but they have started this year with a draw against weaker opponent Leicester City. It is quite true that Liverpool dominated at the beginning at the match but Leicester came back strongly. Even after being ahead by 2 goals, Liverpool failed to maximize their chances and they ended up allowing two goals in the second half and thus the match ended in draw. If Liverpool FC doesn’t do some major improvement then they will not see many wins in near future.

Liverpool 2-2 Leicester City:

17' Steven Gerrard (pen.) 1-0 // 40' Steven Gerrard (pen.) 2-0 // 58' 2-1 David Nugent // 60' 2-2 Jeffrey Schlupp

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