Overview
After appointing Claudio Ranieri to the hot seat at Olimpico, AS Roma is on a strong comeback. Since the beginning of 2025, they have had 7 wins and 2 draws in Serie A, bringing Giallorossi back to the race for a ticket to the European Cup next season.
In the Europa League, Roma also dramatically beat Porto with a total score of 4-3 to reach the round of 16. It can be said that AS Roma is ready to make other surprises in the rest of the 2024-2025 season.
However, Athletic Bilbao has also had extremely impressive form recently. Despite being defeated by Atletico Madrid with a minimum score, Athletic Bilbao is still temporarily safe in 4th place in the La Liga rankings with 48 points.
In the Europa League, 19 points after 8 matches is the clearest proof of their determination to win the championship. In particular, this year's final will be held at San Memes Stadium.
Of course, traveling to Olimpico will not be an easy problem for Athletic Bilbao, especially when Roma are in good form in 2025. It is likely that Roma will be the team with the advantage of leading in the first leg of the round of 16 of this year's Europa League.
The two teams met in Rome during the League Phase, where the match ended in a 1-1 draw. Artem Dovbyk opened the scoring, then Aitor Paredes equalized for Bilbao with 5 minutes left.
In fact, both of Dovbyk's goals in the Europa League this season have opened the scoring. The Ukrainian striker is expected to continue scoring against Bilbao.
Personnel situation
Dovbyk returned from injury in the match against Como and scored the decisive goal for Roma when coming on as a substitute. The Ukrainian player will be on the field from the start, but Leandro Paredes is suspended for this match.
On the other side of the front line, Sancet has passed the fitness test late and will be in the squad, but it is still unknown whether he will start or not. Meanwhile, Alvaro Djalo has not been able to return.
Expected lineup:
AS Roma: Svilar, Celik, Mancini, Ndicka, Saelemaekers, Kone, Cristante, Angelino, Dybala, Pellegrini, Dovbyk.
Athletic Bilbao: Simon, De Marcos, Vivian, Paredes, Yuri, Jauregizar, Vesga, I. Williams, Gomez, N. Williams, Sannadi.
The match between AS Roma and Bilbao takes place at 3:00 am on February 7 (Vietnam time).
