Roma look to bounce back in BATE decider

AS Roma host FC BATE Borisov in their final Group E fixture with both clubs still in with a chance of claiming a place in the UEFA Champions League round of 16.

• Roma, with five points, sit above Bayer 04 Leverkusen in second place thanks to their superior head-to-head record and they will hold on to their position with victory over BATE – or if they draw and Leverkusen fail to beat FC Barcelona in the group's other game.

• BATE, fourth with four points, will qualify for the knockout stage for the first time if they win in Rome and Leverkusen lose or draw against Barcelona.

Match background

Roma
• Roma last qualified for the UEFA Champions League round of 16 in 2010/11.

• They must put behind them their 6-1 defeat at Barcelona on matchday five and can take heart from their efforts at the Stadio Olimpico so far in Group E – having held Barça (1-1) and defeated Leverkusen (3-2).

• The Giallorossi have the leakiest defence in the group stage, with 16 goals conceded in five games to date.

BATE
• Qualifying matches included, BATE have won none of their five away fixtures in this season's competition, losing the last three.

• The Belarusian champions earned their first victory over Italian opposition when beating Roma 3-2 on matchday two. In Italy their record is W0 D1 L3.

• BATE's solitary draw in Italy was a 0-0 stalemate with Juventus on 10 December 2008. Dmitri Likhtarovich, Vitali Rodionov, Igor Stasevich and Aleksandr Volodko all played, while current coach Aleksandr Yermakovich came on as an 89th-minute substitute for his last European appearance as a player.

Coach and player links
• Home coach Rudi Garcia faced BATE with LOSC Lille in the 2012/13 campaign, the Borisov outfit winning 3-1 in France on 19 September 2012 to register their first victory in the UEFA Champions League group stage. BATE's team included Aleksandr Hleb, Likhtarovich, Dmitri Mozolevski, Denis Polyakov, and scorers Edgar Olekhnovich and Volodko.

• Lille – featuring Lucas Digne – won the return 2-0 in Minsk but BATE still ended up third in the group with Garcia's men bottom.

• Yermakovich played in BATE's two UEFA Intertoto Cup ties with Bologna FC in 2002 (0-2 a, 0-0 h).

• Edin Džeko and Miralem Pjanić won 2-0 with Bosnia and Herzegovina in a UEFA EURO 2012 qualifier away to a Belarus side including Maksim Zhavnerchik.

• Mikhail Gordeichuk and Dmitri Baga were in the Belarus team who overcame Italy 3-0 in Borisov in October 2010 to qualify for the 2011 UEFA European Under-21 Championship finals (aggregate 3-2).

• Francesco Totti played and Morgan De Sanctis was on the bench when Italy prevailed 4-1 away to Hleb's Belarus in a 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifier in September 2005. Totti (2) and Daniele De Rossi (1) had earlier scored when Italy edged Belarus 4-3 at home.

• Hleb helped Arsenal FC beat Juventus in the 2005/06 quarter-finals (aggregate 2-0) and Milan in the 2007/08 round of 16 (aggregate 2-0).

• Players who have played together:
Hleb & Seydou Keita (Barcelona 2008–09)

Match facts

Roma
• Radja Nainggolan and Daniele De Rossi are both within a booking of a ban.

• Roma have failed to score in only two of their last 31 games in all competitions, most recently when losing 2-0 to Atalanta BC on 29 November – the Giallorossi's first home defeat since the final day of last season.

• Džeko has managed five goals in his last eight appearances for club and country.

• Garcia's side have only kept one clean sheet in their last 17 matches (2-0 v SS Lazio on 8 November) and two all season.

• Roma have conceded 18 goals in 15 Serie A games this term. At this stage in Garcia's first two seasons in charge the figure stood at four (2013/14) and 11 (2014/15) respectively.

• Gervinho lasted just 26 minutes of the 1-1 draw at Torino FC on 5 December − his first appearance since suffering a thigh injury during the Ivory Coast's 3-0 FIFA World Cup qualifying victory over Liberia on 17 November.

• Mohamed Salah sustained an ankle injury in the victory against Lazio and was subsequently ruled out for four to six weeks.

• Totti has been sidelined since picking up a thigh injury against Carpi FC 1909 on 26 September. The Roma captain lasted only nine minutes after replacing Džeko at half-time.

• Alessandro Florenzi's long-range goal against Barcelona on matchday one is one of the three finalists for the FIFA Puskás Award. The winner will be announced on 11 January.

BATE
• Nemanja Milunović, Filip Mladenović, Denis Polyakov and Maksim Volodko are all a booking away from a ban.

• BATE completed an 8-1 aggregate victory over FC Granit Mikashevichi in the Belarusian Cup round of 16 with a 3-1 second-leg triumph on 29 November.

• Aleksandr Karnitski, a 73rd-minute substitute on matchday five, has scored in each of his last three starts.

• BATE claimed their tenth successive Belarusian title on 16 October by winning 2-0 at FC Vitebsk. They concluded their Vysshaya Liga campaign with a 4-1 triumph over SFC Slutsk on 8 November, finishing 12 points clear of runners-up FC Dinamo Minsk.

• Sergei Chernik kept a league best 16 clean sheets in 24 appearances. BATE did not concede a goal until their 11th fixture of the 2015 season.