After securing a place in the Champions League group stage with victory over Lazio on Monday, there will be a party atmosphere at the Stadio Olimpico on Sunday as Roma welcome Palermo to the capital.
The Rosanero are also celebrating a successful Serie A campaign, comfortably avoiding another relegation dogfight on their return, so there is hope for an open and entertaining match in Rome.
However, during January’s meeting in Sicily spectators had to wait 52 minutes for Giallorossi striker Mattia Destro to bundle home a scrappy equaliser and cancel out Paulo Dybala’s second minute opener.
During the last decade, though, this has been a fixture full of action, as the spoils have been fairly evenly shared – Roma with nine wins to Palermo’s six.
Those last 17 meetings have also seen a massive 57 goals in total -averaging just over three per game.
However, the Romans have dominated at the Olimpico – victorious in six of the past eight – winning 4-1 the last time the sides met there in 2012.
Palermo have taste victory in Rome as recently as the 2010/11 campaign, though, when two late Abel Hernandez goals sunk the Giallorossi 3-2.
But with just one win in their last six, it looks unlikely that Rosanero will be leaving with three points on this occasion and, despite a nine-game unbeaten run at the end of October, have been as inconsistent as current form suggests.
Playing out two entertaining 3-2 losses to Atalanta and Fiorentina recently, their solitary win came against an already relegated Cagliari and coincides with the current goal drought of Juventus-bound Dybala.
Roma in contrast have recorded four wins in their last five to secure a Champions League place that seemed to be slipping from their grasp towards the end of March, and the confidence gained from last weekend’s victory over their bitter-rivals Lazio makes them favourites.
In fact, the only risk to a Roma victory is if coach Rudi Garcia decides to give a run-out to fringe players with second place assured, however, with Kevin Strootman, Gervinho, Maicon already injured may not have that luxury.
The Frenchman is forced to replace the suspended Vasilis Torosidis, though, with Alessandro Florenzi expected to be used as a makeshift right-back once more.
With virtually a full squad to pick from, and hoping to end their season on a high, Palermo coach Giuseppe Iachini is expected to select a full strength team.
Form Guide: Roma (W-W-L-W-W), Palermo (D-D-L-W-L)
Expected Starting XIs
Roma: De Sanctis; Florenzi, Manolas, Astori, Holebas; Nainggolan, De Rossi, Pjanic; Ibarbo, Totti, Iturbe
Palermo: Sorrentino; Vitiello, Gonzalez, Andelkovic; Rispoli, Rigoni, Jajalo, Lazaar; Vazquez; Belotti, Dybala
