Roma aiming to avoid slip-up in Romania

AS Roma visit Romanian titleholders CFR 1907 Cluj looking to book their place in the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League.

• Claudio Ranieri's team sit three points clear of FC Basel 1893 in second place in Group E after coming from two goals down to beat FC Bayern München last time out, and know either a win or draw would sew up qualification. If they were to lose, however, Basel could overtake them by winning at a Bayern side already assured top spot.

• For CFR, who parted company with coach Sorin Cârţu after Matchday 5, the only thing left to play for is pride after their defeat in Basel on Matchday 5 consigned them to fourth place.

Previous meetings
• CFR stunned the Stadio Olimpico by overcoming Roma 2-1 in their first ever outing in the UEFA Champions League in September 2008. Christian Panucci (17) put the hosts in front but Juan Culio's double (27, 49) earned CFR the sole victory of their debut campaign.

• Roma gained revenge with a 3-1 win in Romania. Matteo Brighi (11) and Francesco Totti (23) struck early goals and although Yssouf Koné (30) halved the deficit, Brighi (64) made sure with his second of the night.

• The lineups for that fixture on 26 November 2008 were:
CFR: Stăncioiu, Panin, Cadú, De Sousa, Pereira, Dani (Peralta 73), Mureşan, Culio, Trica (Deac 84), Dubarbier (Emmanuel Koné 70), Yssouf Koné.
Roma: Doni, Cassetti, Mèxes, Juan, Tonetto, (Riise 86), Taddei, De Rossi, Brighi, Perrotta (Pizarro 90), Júlio Baptista, Totti (Vučinić 81).

• The identity of the two coaches has changed since with Luciano Spalletti then in the Roma dugout and Maurizio Trombetta at CFR.

Match background
• CFR's campaign has followed the same course as in 2008/09. Just as then, they have been unable to build on a Matchday 1 victory, with their 2-1 loss at Roma the first of four successive reverses since beating Basel in mid-September. They are currently one point short of their final total from that first season among Europe's elite.

• Roma are looking to qualify for the UEFA Champions League's latter stages for the fourth time in five seasons and go into the game seeking a third straight victory after winning 3-2 in Basel on Matchday 4, then beating Bayern by the same score.

• Roma have only faced Romanian opposition on one other occasion, meeting FC Steaua Bucureşti in the 1984/85 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup first round. Francesco Graziani's 73rd-minute strike in the first leg in Rome was the only goal of the tie.

Team ties
• Roma coach Ranieri guided ACF Fiorentina to a 2-1 aggregate victory against ACF Gloria 1922 Bistriţa in the 1996/97 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup first round, winning the second leg in Italy 1-0.

• In the 1998/99 UEFA Cup first round, he steered Valencia CF to home and away wins against Steaua, 4-3 in Romania and 3-0 in Spain. In his second spell at Valencia, Ranieri suffered UEFA Cup elimination at the hands of Steaua in 2004/05. Although Valencia, then holders, won the first leg of their round of 32 tie 2-0, they lost by the same score in Bucharest and went out 4-3 on penalties.

• CFR's squad includes the Italian trio of Felice Piccolo – who played for S.S. Lazio in 2005/06 – Roberto De Zerbi and Ferdinando Sforzini. Saša Bjelanović spent eight seasons in Italy before joining CFR this summer.

• Roma's Romanian international goalkeeper Bogdan Lobonţ played for FC Rapid Bucureşti and FC Dinamo Bucureşti in his homeland.

• Philippe Mexès appeared for France in a 2-0 UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying win against Romania in October, Ciprian Deac appearing as a half-time substitute for the visitors.

• Totti scored for Italy in a 2-0 quarter-final win against Romania at UEFA EURO 2000.

• Guillermo Burdisso began his career at the same club in Argentina, CA Rosario Central, as CFR midfielder Tomás Costa. Costa had already left for FC Porto when Burdisso made his senior debut in 2008/09.