Roma coach Ivan Juric EPA-EFE/GIUSEPPE LAMI
Ivan Juric explains his changes to Roma for their first Europa League match against Athletic Club, and how they intend to “damage” the Spanish team.
It kicks off at the Olympic Stadium at 20.00:19.00 UK time (19.00 GMT).
You can follow all the construction and action as it happens on the LIVEBLOG.
The Europa League has also changed its format this season: each team will face eight different opponents and all the results will come together in one big table.
It’s been a chaotic time for the Giallorossi, who sacked coach Daniele De Rossi just over a week ago and signed Juric, who made his debut in the 3-0 Serie A win over Udinese.
He made three changes from that squad, bringing in Mario Hermoso for his first start, along with Manu Koné and Tommaso Baldanzi, but Lorenzo Pellegrini, Enzo Le Fée and Alexis Saelemaekers are injured.
“Koné is young and has great skills, he has never played this type of football before, but I have seen a lot more concentration and understanding in the last two days. We will see how it goes, there is work to do, but he has great potential “, Juric said this to Sky Sport Italia.
Juric changes Roma for Athletic Club
There were doubts as to whether Paulo Dybala would start or be rested, but La Joya is in the eleven behind Artem Dovbyk.
“I hope he is ready, he played a great game for 80 minutes and seems to have recovered well in the last four days.”
Nico Williams is injured and only plays on the bench, but his brother Inaki Williams is a regular at Athletic Bilbao and there is no secret about the Basque team’s strengths.
“It’s not just Nico, they have a very fast pace throughout the team and focus on counterattacks. We have worked in training to prepare those concepts and hope to prevent counterattacks from starting,” added Juric.
“We have to play good football. Athletic have been well synchronized in defense for many years, but I think we can damage them with two players behind the centre-forward, with the full-backs, it can be done.”
The former Torino coach was forced to accept the job in a hurry and because of this he did not have time to find a home in Rome, so he had to live and work 24 hours a day at the training ground in Trigoria.
“There’s a lot of work to do, we’re trying to understand everything we can improve and there’s a lot to focus on during this time.”