~snip~
In the European contests, there's been top contending teams from the start till the current stage of the contest. Even though days back, the playoffs stage was concluded and there we saw few teams earn advancement tickets. Well from the beginning of the tournament, we know that it'll only be the tough teams that'd survive. Also predicting the winner this season would be hard as there are a number of tough teams to pick from. The highest we can do is to just analyze these teams based on their overtime performances this season and bringing that in the picture. For Roma and Brighton, it'll be risky to say who'd be victorious in the coming European encounter.
But Between these two teams, Roma have been trying though, they're anticipating the a top spot in the Serie A league race, as well as they've been able to compete real well in their Copa Italia games too and then they're also top contenders for the European cup. Well, the Serie A games that's been played so far will put them in a high victory hungry spot, and when the next European game will be played the weight on them would be a bit lessened as before now, due to their past games where they've had to keep up proper performances, they had to keep resting players at some point and I believe it had an effect on some of their games. Good thing is, they've been able to build up their confidence rightly and they've got to strive to stay ahead in subsequent games.
So I believe that their game against Brighton won't be so tough for them as one would imagine it to be as they've tried in a very little way to be above their opponent in terms of performance. For Brighton, they've been impactful, currently striving to stay in shape in the Premier League too and so they've got same goal as Roma and therefore if in recent times they've remained at an average performance level, then I doubt that there'd be a negative difference now when the tournament and season is almost rounded up. For me, I'll really love to see the heated game between Roma and Brighton in the UEL soon though and I have a feeling that the game would practically end in a draw at the first leg but it's only best that one of the sides stands out more and secure the 3points ahead.
You are right and everything has been arranged clearly for the team that will continue the match to the next round and the round of 16 matches will take place in approximately 1 week time, we will see how each team competes to win the match and proceed to the round of 8.
In the Roma and Brighton match, we will probably still have difficulty determining who will win and qualify for the last 8, as I said before.
If we evaluate Roma based on their performance in each competition, we can see that Roma have played quite well, from the Copa Italia, Serie A and also the European League which has become the competition they are playing this season with the best performance.
It is not yet clear whether Roma will really be strong team and potentially the strongest candidate for the title, but there are quite few people out there who make Roma the favorite.
Whether it will be victory for Roma or Brighton and being able to qualify for the last 8, what is certain is that for this first leg, I will not choose one of the favorites to bet on, after I observe it with more consideration, the first leg match can show different results unexpected.
I much more interested in the match between Leverkusen vs Qarabag and also Liverpool vs Sparta Prague.