AS Roma vs Lecce preview - No room for sentiment for Di Francesco

Posted Sunday, November 20, 2011 by PA

Lecce coach Eusebio Di Francesco has called for his side to play without fear at his former club Roma on Sunday night.

The Salentini, currently in 18th place in Serie A, will be hoping to climb out of the relegation zone this weekend.

They are level on eight points with Inter Milan, who hold the last position of safety.

"Sunday's game will be a tough match," said Di Francesco, who played five seasons at Roma before embarking on a coaching career.

"To return to the Stadio Olimpico as a coach is a lovely feeling.

"I have wonderful memories of my time at Roma. But now my only focus is on Lecce and helping the team avoid the drop this season.

"We have had time to prepare fully for this game and we know we must only focus on playing to our potential.

"Roma are getting stronger and they have great players.

"We know they will want to play to their best when in front of their own crowd and we mustn't show any fear."

Roma will be boosted by the return of captain Francesco Totti this weekend.

Totti has fully recovered from a muscular injury that sidelined him for a month and is expected to play behind strikers Bojan and Daniel Osvaldo, who were both on target in their 2-0 win at Novara last time out.

The result was Roma's fourth victory of the campaign and lifted them to seventh place.

Roma coach Luis Enrique will be without defender Nicolas Burdisso, who sustained a serious knee injury while on international duty with Argentina this week and will be out for six months.

Moreover, defender Juan has failed to recover from a muscular injury.

The only consolation for Luis Enrique is that Danish defender Simon Kjaer has overcome an ankle injury and will play from the start.

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