Scolari predicts 'beautiful game'

Luiz Felipe Scolari is predicting a "beautiful" game when AS Roma visit Chelsea FC – despite the Italian side's recent poor form.

Roma style
While Scolari's team are top of both the English Premier League and UEFA Champions League Group A, Roma's 4-0 home loss to FC Internazionale Milano on Sunday left them 14th in Serie A. The Brazilian, though, has been impressed by Roma's flair and high technical ability. "Roma play like us, with a lot of touches of the ball," the Chelsea manager said. "The players try to play, they don't just hit the ball forward, and I believe this will be a beautiful game."

Results the thing
If it is not, Scolari will not be losing any sleep. Even though the London club are setting themselves new standards with the quality of their football and the goals they are scoring, nothing matters as much as winning. "It's nice for me [to hear this praise] but it's down to the players," the trainer said. "They are doing a good job and it's nice for them, as well as for me, that people like the way we play. But I want to say something to the Chelsea fans – we play beautiful football but we need three points every game. Sometimes it's not possible to play beautiful football and, in that case, we have to get the three points because otherwise it is difficult to arrive in the finals in May."

Strength in depth
The strength of Scolari's squad was underlined when a side shorn of eight potential starters won 5-0 at Middlesbrough FC on Saturday. Petr Čech, Ricardo Carvalho and Deco were the only three of those absentees who trained on Tuesday, and Scolari might well decide to include them on the bench against the Giallorossi. Their opponents also have injury concerns but more worrying is a sequence of two wins from seven league games this season. They also lost at home to CFR 1907 Cluj on Matchday 1, so a defeat here would leave them with just three points and put their qualifying prospects in jeopardy. Coach Luciano Spalletti remains hopeful, though. "We need to fight for the 50-50 balls, get back behind the ball and squeeze space," he said. "I still have high hopes that we can get results in the group."

Totti return
On Sunday Francesco Totti made his first Serie A start since undergoing knee surgery in April and is expected to stay in the team. Philippe Mexès and Christian Panucci should also return to the heart of the defence after suspension. However, centre-back Juan suffered a muscle strain at the weekend, Simone Perrotta is running a high temperature as well as carrying a knock, and fellow midfielder David Pizarro hurt his left ankle in training having been likely to make a comeback after a thigh problem. "We know it's going to be tough because Chelsea are one of the best teams in the world and they have one of the best managers," Spalletti added. "We have to roll up our sleeves, work in the right way and then things will turn for us."