Prediction & odds for the game: Manchester United (8/15) v Roma (19/4) – ST is backing the home win

When: Thursday, 29th April @ 8pm K.O

Where: Old Trafford

Manchester United will meet Roma this week in the first leg of their highly anticipated UEFA Europa League semi-final.

Manchester United

Manchester United aren’t going to be winning the Premier League title this season but they’ve done a decent job of establishing themselves as the second best team in the top flight. In addition to that, they’re now able to grind out big results from games that, just a few months ago, they probably would’ve struggled in. That’s a huge step in the right direction and the big test for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will now be to maintain that.

There was a relative ease to United’s display in their Europa League quarter-final against Granada, starting off with a comfortable 2-0 win in the first leg. One week later they seemed to be in complete cruise control and while the Spaniards had their moments, United won 2-0 again to register a 4-0 aggregate win.

Roma

Roma haven’t quite been able to keep up with the rest of the pack in what has been a chaotic Serie A season, and because of that, it’s starting to feel as if winning the Europa League is going to be their best chance at making some noise in Europe next season. They’ve got a decent structure within their squad but they really have to be smart about their approach to these two games, because let’s face it, United have the power to blow them out of the water.

It was always going to be tough for Roma to overcome Ajax in the quarter-finals but after a strong 2-1 win away from home in the first leg, they knew they were in a decent position. They went on to draw the second leg 1-1 and while it was certainly tense, they held their nerve brilliantly.

Conclusion

Roma will try to be conservative and pick their moments in this first leg when in reality, going after the knockout blow and a potential away goal is probably going to be the best route forward. United, on the other hand, know that they’re a stronger overall unit – but they won’t want to allow their status as favourites to get in the way of the task at hand. We predict Ole’s men will get the job done and take a solid lead into the second leg.

In terms of the official scoreline prediction, we’re going to go with 2-0 Manchester United – meaning we stick to the under 2.5 goals bracket in what should be a fairly one-sided affair in Manchester.

Verdict: Back the home win at odds of 8/15 and the under 2.5 goals scored at odds of 1/1 (All odds are taken from bet365).

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If you want to bet on Manchester United vs Roma then head on over to the betting page. Alternatively, you can check out some of the other available fixtures on the soccer predictions page as this season’s Europa League drama continues.