YOU need to go back seven years for the last time Ajax lost a Europa League game at the Johan Cruyff ArenA and Roma will have a tough task on their hands to change that stat in Thursday first leg of the quarter-finals.
The Dutch cracks are rightly regarded as one of the favourites for the competition outright and they can back that up with scintillating recent form.
They haven't lost since the start of December. Since the beginning of January, Ajax have played 18 games in the Eredivisie, Dutch Cup and the Europa League and won 17 of them – they drew the other game at PSV Eindhoven.
They've won ten Europa League home games on the trot and beat Ligue 1 leaders Lille home and away before dismantling Young Boys in the previous round.
In contrast, Roma currently sit outside the European spots in Serie A after an underwhelming season. They have only won one of their last four games, but knocked out Braga and Shakhtar Donetsk with relative ease to reach this stage.
How the bookies view it
The hosts are hovering around the evens mark with Tonybet. The draw is 14/5 with McBookie.com and a win for the Italians is 13/5 with Tonybet.
Recent head to heads
Despite being stalwarts of European competition, surprisingly the sides have only met twice in the Champions League of 2002/03 with Ajax winning 2-1 in the Netherlands and the sides also drew 1-1 in Rome.
Players to watch
Talented Serbian playmaker Dusan Tadic has 19 goals for the season for club and country and netted in his last game against Heerenveen. He's 7/4 with Paddy Power to score anytime.
There could be value in the 19/5 with Unibet for Roma midfielder Jordan Veretout to net. The French star has popped up with important goals throughout the season and is a threat.
Anything else catch the eye?
Roma are very poor travellers this season. They've won just five of their 14 away games in Serie A, although they have only lost once in Europe this term when they went down to a shock loss to CSKA Sofia.
Erik ten Hag's side are relentless at the moment, although earlier in the season they only picked up one point from six against fellow Serie A side Atalanta. But they have all the momentum going into this one.
They have scored at least two goals in 15 of their last 16 games and the 5/6 with 888Sport for them to net two or more again is solid.
Roma have looked better in Europe than in the league and have scored at least two in all their Europa League knock-out games so there should be goals and they can steal an away one. With that in mind, the 5/2 for both teams to score and an Ajax win has a real chance with Hill's.
This UEFA Europa League match between Ajax and Roma will be played on Apr 8, 2021 and kick off at 20:00. Check below for our tipsters best Ajax vs Roma prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
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