BRAGA

League position: 3rd
Head coach: Carlos Carvalhal
Europa League top-scorer: Ricardo Horta (3)

RECENT FORM

Roma: W L W W D
Braga: D D W L W

Roma were unable to back-up their superb victory in Portugal with a third win on the spin at the weekend, as they dropped points in a 0-0 draw with Benevento in Serie A.

It was, however, a third clean sheet in a row and Paulo Fonseca's side will be confident on home soil having won their last three at the Olimpico and so far gone the entire season in both the league and Europe without tasting defeat at home.

Braga, meanwhile, dusted themselves off from last week's loss - that ended their own 16-game unbeaten record (W13, D3) in all competitions at the Estadio Municipal de Braga this term - with a 4-2 win over Tondela on Sunday.

Lucas Piazon (two), Ricardo Horta and Joao Novais were all on target as Carvalhal's men picked up three points that keeps them third in the Portuguese top-flight.

DANGER MAN
Ricardo Horta

Last week we singled out Wanderson Galeno for attention, but this time it's Braga top-scorer Horta who we have our eyes on.

The 26-year-old's goal last weekend was his 12th of the season in all competitions to go with his six assists operating behind either Andraz Sporar or Abel Ruiz at the tip of the Braga attack.

Horta was forced to operate from the wing in the first leg as Carvalhal moved away from his preferred 3-4-2-1 formation but with his team needing to score a minimum of two goals to stay in the tie, the 55-year-old may revert to type as Braga go in search of what would be a famous win.

If they are to turn the game on its head then Horta will be essential to their chances and will most likely have had to add to the three goals he's already scored in the Europa League this term.

MATCH STATS

The first leg was the first meeting between these two sides in their history, meaning Roma currently have a 100 per cent record over Braga.

Since leaving Braga in 2016, Fonseca has met his old employers on three occasions in the Europa League and won all three.

Roma have won four of their last six home games against Portuguese sides (W4, D1, L1), the most recent being the 2-1 win over Porto in February 2019.

As for the visitors, Braga have lost each of their last four away matches in the knockout stages of the UEL, while failing to score in three of those games.

PLAYER STATS

• Since his first Europa League appearance for Roma in 2016, Edin Dzeko has scored 13 of his team's 53 goals in the competition, with the next highest contribution coming from own goals (5).
  
• Borja Mayoral is Roma's top scorer in the competition this term, scoring four times in seven appearances.
  
• Spanish goalkeeper Pau Lopez has kept four clean sheets from his six Europa League matches in 2020-21, conceding just twice across those fixtures.
  
• Braga midfielder Piazon spent the second half of the 2018-19 campaign on loan at Chievo, where he made his Serie A debut against Roma in a 3-0 defeat in February 2019 that saw Dzeko and Stephan El Shaarawy both find the back of the net.
  
• Galeno has served up the most Europa League assists (4) across the entire tournament this season.

WHAT THEY SAID

"We played a great game, one of the best games of the season. I'm very pleased with the reactions to the defeat to Roma, which did not knock us back in the slightest. We knew what we did, we knew the impact of the game, but the reaction was very good."

- Braga coach Carlos Carvalhal after the Tondela win