Roma to surprise United

Roma can surprise visitors Manchester United in the Champions League quarter-final, first leg, in the Stadio Olimpico on Tuesday evening. They are a stand-out 11-5 with Paddy Power, against a general quote of 7-4 - totesport offer only 6-4.

Although Roma will be missing the influential Francesco Totti, who was injured over the weekend, they still have a formidable striker in Mirko Vucinic, who has struck four times in this season’s competition, including against AC Milan, Real Madrid and Dynamo Kiev.

This is the clubs’ fifth meeting in a year, and most will remember United’s 7-1 drubbing of Roma at Old Trafford. Forgotten in that, though, is that Roma won the first leg 2-1, and have since been beaten only 1-0 at Old Trafford in this season’s group phase and drew 1-1 at home.

Also, Roma reached the quarter-finals with a 4-2 aggregate win over Real Madrid and are second to Inter Milan in Serie A.

United’s domestic form has been spectacular and they were again imperious in brushing aside Aston Villa 4-0 on Saturday. The likes of Rooney and Ronaldo need no introduction, but the fact remains that United do not always reproduce that form in Europe.

They only squeezed past Lyon 2-1 on aggregate in the previous round, a late Carlos Tevez goal sparing their blushes in a 1-1 away draw.

Meetings between these sides will always take place in the shadow of that 7-1 avalanche, but Roma are better than that and the bookmakers might be under-estimating them. They offer a bit of value.

United are 13-8 with Betfred and Coral, and the draw 21-10 with Paddy Power.

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