Ajax and Roma meet at the Johan Cruyff Arena for the first leg of their UEFA Europa League quarter-final clash on Thursday.
The Dutch side head into Thursday’s match on a seven-game winning streak in all competitions and are unbeaten in their previous 24.
On the flip side, Roma have only managed to win one of their last four outings in all competitions and are currently enduring a two-match winless run.
Having extended their unbeaten streak in the Eredivisie to 16 games with a 2-1 win over Heerenveen on Sunday, Ajax are on the verge of clinching the Dutch top-flight title.
Erik ten Hag’s men are now 11 points clear of second-place PSV in the Eredivisie, with 22 wins from 27 league games this season.
AFC Ajax dropped out of the Champions League earlier in the campaign, but they have since adapted to the Europa League in convincing fashion.
After securing a 4-2 aggregate win over Lille in the Round of 32, ten Hag’s side crushed Young Boys in the Round of 16.
Ajax have scored over 1.5 goals in each of their previous five Europa League games and have won on every occasion in that time.
Following a 2-2 draw with Sassuolo last time out, Roma now find themselves seventh in Serie A – 17 points off top spot.
Looking at the bigger picture, Roma have only managed to win two of their last seven Serie A outings, suffering three defeats along the way.
However, AS Roma have enjoyed a successful Europa League campaign up to now, winning eight of their ten European game this term.
Roma thrashed Braga 5-1 on aggregate in the Round of 32, before seeing off Shakhtar Donetsk by exactly the same scoreline in the Round of 16.
Given that each of Roma’ previous three Europa League games have produced over 2.5 goals, we are set for a high-scoring encounter on Thursday.
Head-to-head: The two previous meetings between Ajax and Roma came all the way back in the 2002/03 Champions League campaign.
Ajax beat Roma 2-1 at home that season, with the two sides drawing 1-1 in Italy. However, that was almost a decade ago.
Team news: Noussair Mazraoui, Daley Blind and Maarten Stekelenburg are all injured for Ajax, while Andre Onana is serving a doping ban.
On the other hand, Roma will be without injured quartet Marash Kumbulla, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Juan Jesus and Chris Smalling.
When you consider the contrasting form of Ajax and Roma, all the signs point towards a high-scoring home victory on Thursday.
Forebet predicts that Ajax will score over 3.5 goals on their way to securing a comfortable first-leg win over Roma.
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