Roma have an all-new trident attack and three-man defence against Stevan Jovetic’s Fiorentina” data-scaytid=”4″>Fiorentina in the Coppa Italia quarter-final this evening.
Roma have an all-new trident attack and three-man defence against Stevan Jovetic’s Fiorentina in the Coppa Italia quarter-final this evening.
The winners of this tie at the Stadio Artemio Franchi, which kicks off at 20.00 GMT, will go on to face Inter in the semi-final.
Zdenek Zeman is forced to reshuffle his squad, as Francesco Totti is injured, while Pablo Daniel Osvaldo and Erik Lamela are both suspended.
Maarten Stekelenburg was set to start, but pulled out with an attack of gastroenteritis, while Marquinho was dropped for disciplinary reasons after reacting angrily to a substitution and Nico Lopez is away at the Under-20 tournament.
Therefore Mattia Destro is joined by Miralem Pjanic and Alessandro Florenzi in a more advanced role.
Federico Balzaretti is also pushed up, as Roma have surprisingly announced they will adopt a 3-4-3 system rather than Zeman’s iconic 4-3-3.
Fiorentina have David Pizarro back in the squad after an ankle injury, but he is only fit for the bench.
Alberto Aquilani gets to face his former club with Borja Valero in midfield. Jovetic partners ex-Roma striker Luca Toni up front.
Emiliano Viviano had been expected to return between the goalposts after he was dropped in favour of Neto in recent games, but the Brazilian gets the nod once again.
Fiorentina: Neto, Tomovic, Rodriguez, Savic; Cuadrado, Migliaccio, Aquilani, Borja Valero, Pasqual; Jovetic, Toni
Fiorentina bench: Viviano, Roncaglia, Olivera, Pizarro, Lupatelli, Fernandez, Seferovic, Llama, Ljajic, Camporese, Romulo
Roma: Goicoechea; Marquinhos, Castan, Burdisso; Piris, De Rossi, Bradley, Balzaretti; Pjanic, Destro, Florenzi
Roma bench: Svedkauskas, Dodò, Lucca, Taddei, Tachtsidis, Frediani, Ferrante