Primavera ready for title play-offs

Alberto De Rossi's side, who finished third in the league phase of the season, made the trip to Reggio Emilia on Wednesday - in preparation for Friday's quarter-final clash with Chievo Verona.

“We need to be very well prepared, because Chievo have a lot of talent. It won’t be easy,” De Rossi said.

“However, we need to focus on ourselves first and foremost. During the league a lot of games were decided by our own decisions and actions, some for the better and some for the worse.

"We need to be ready to go from the first whistle. I think the boys know how good they are. In some games they did not just win, but dominated matches. That’s what we aim to do.”

Should they beat Chievo, the Under-19s will face Inter Milan for a place in the final - and a shot at this season's Serie A title.

Atalanta, Fiorentina and Torino are the sides in the other half of the draw.

In the league, Roma beat Chievo 1-0 away from home - but lost the meeting at Tre Fontane 4-3.

In total the Giallorossi ended the season with 55 points from their 30 games, with 16 victories.

They scored more goals than any other side, with league top goalscorer Zan Celar responsible for 28 of the side's 80 goals. Celar, however, will miss at least the first match after being called up to international duty with Slovenia.

“Being without the league’s top goalscorer isn’t ideal, but we have other great players who can come in and do very well," De Rossi added.

"There is Estrella, Bucri and a number of other players. We are pretty calm, although obviously it would be better to have Celar. But everything can happen at this point of the season, to us and to the other sides, so in that sense we are prepared to take things like this as they come.”

Here are the fixtures for the Final Phase, which takes place at stadiums across Reggio Emilia:

QUARTER-FINALS

Torino-Fiorentina
Thursday 6 June
18.30 (local time)

Roma-Chievo Verona
Friday 7 June
18.30

SEMI-FINALS

Atalanta - Winner Match 1
Monday 10 June
20.45

Inter - Winner Match 2
Tuesday 11 June
18.00

FINAL
Friday 14 June
20.45