Roma v Cadiz is a friendly and will be played on Friday at 20:00: news, statistics, live TV, streaming, likely formations, predictions.
The Algarve region of Portugal is a familiar place for José Mourinho’s Roma, who have been travelling to the deep south of the Iberian country for the past couple of years to prepare for the new season. In this particular year, ‘split’ in two by the World Cup, Zaniolo and his team-mates have returned to Portugal early and it is here that they will play a couple of friendlies ahead of their first official match in 2023 against Bologna.
At the Municipal Stadium in Albufeira the Giallorossi will play their third friendly match of this atypical offseason, following a mini-tournament in Japan last November. The two test matches on Japanese soil ended in draws against the Nagoya Grampus Eight (0-0) and the Yokohama Marinos (3-3), both teams capable of holding their own against an all too experimental Roma side, who had clearly not yet recovered from the hard workload. The Lusitanian coach expects from his team a change of pace in the second half of the season. And he wants to take advantage of these days of training and friendlies to try to polish those flaws that have not allowed the Capitoline team to take off.
Roma made it through the Europa League round by the skin of their teeth and in the league must currently be content with a disappointing seventh place. The defence is holding up but Mourinho is paying for a decidedly unprolific attack: nobody in the top eight has scored less than the Giallorossi. In Portugal, the team awaits Cadiz, a team currently struggling at the bottom of the Spanish La Liga, having collected just 11 points in 14 matches. The Andalusians, however, just beat Manchester United 4-2 in a friendly before losing 3-4 to another English side, Wolverhampton.
Sergio, coach of Cadiz
Mourinho and the double assignment with Portugal
Meanwhile, the Roma environment is also coping with the Mourinho-Portugal affair. The Portuguese national team, after the World Cup failure, has exonerated Santos and is trying to convince the Special One. According to reports in today’s Corriere dello Sport, there has already been a meeting between Mendes, Mourinho’s attorney, and the federal president Fernando Gomes. In a hotel the parties discussed the possible signing of Mourinho, for whom, however, Roma remains a top priority. They are, however, trying to understand if there could be the margins for a Portugal-Roma double.
The prediction
Mourinho will field a line-up that could be similar to the one that will face Bologna in the league, but without Dybala (committed to Argentina in Qatar) and Rui Patricio, another World Cup veteran. A revival is expected from Abraham in attack: the Englishman has been one of the unjustified ‘absentees’ in the first part of the season, making too many mistakes in the scoring phase. Roma should avoid defeat in a match with at least one goal each, as they scored plenty in the two friendlies in Cadiz.
Roma v Cádiz Squad
- ROMA (3-4-2-1): Svilar; Mancini, Smalling, Ibanez; Celik, Cristante, Matic, El Shaarawy; Zaniolo, Shomurodov; Abraham.
- CADICE (4-4-2): Ledesma; Alcaraz, Hernandez, Spatz, Arzamendia; Ocampo, Garcia, Fernandez, Alejo; Negredo, Lozano.
POSSIBLE RESULT: 1-1
