Champions League quarterfinal action begins on Tuesday with the first legs as AS Roma hosts Manchester United while Schalke is home to Barcelona. Roma will be facing a tough test, especially without Francesco Totti. Barcelona is not in the best of shape in their match as they will be without Lionel Messi and Deco. They may also be without Samuel Eto’o and Ronaldinho.

Totti tore a muscle in his left thigh over the weekend in Roma’s draw versus Cagliari. “The team loses in percentage terms for the extraordinary things he’s capable of,” Roma coach Luciano Spalletti said, “But I have a lot of confidence that the team will assume the responsibility of picking up the slack, just as they’ve done in the past when we’ve been without our captain.” United may have been favored anyway and now that Totti is out they are expected to at least get a draw. “Roma is going to be a massive game for us and we prepared the right way with the win against Villa,” said United’s Wayne Rooney, “To be at this club, with the football we play at times, is brilliant. It’s something every player would want to be a part of.”

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Barcelona is still favored to beat Schalke but with four stars possibly missing the game, it is no longer a certainty. Barcelona blew a 2-0 lead over the weekend to Betis in league action and is seven points back of Real Madrid in the Spanish league.

Read more on Soccer Betting Preview: Champions League Quarterfinals Begin Tuesday

AS Roma blew their chance to defeat Inter Milan giving up a goal in the 88th minute and it may have ended any chance they had at catching Inter in the Soccer Betting Serie A standings. Inter holds a nine-point lead on Roma with 13 rounds remaining, and the teams do not meet again this season. “It’s a draw that’s worth as much as a victory, for the way it came about,” Inter coach Roberto Mancini said.

Javier Zanetti scored in the 88th-minute to keep Inter undefeated this season.
“We’ve got a pretty good lead but we’ve got to keep going,” Zanetti said. “We still need to improve our form, because we’re not at our best.” Roma had taken the lead on a goal from Francesco Totti in the 38th minute. Inter had just missed earlier when Hernan Crespo hit one off the post. Inter was down to 10 men after losing Maxwell but Roma defender Philippe Mexes picked up his second yellow card that evened things up. Inter nearly scored in the 87th minute but Roma goalkeeper Alexander Doni made the save but he couldn’t stop Zanetti a minute later.

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“We certainly could have closed out the match before, because we created a lot of chances,” Roma coach Luciano Spalletti said. “But we needed to be careful because they had three strikers on and we couldn’t get out of balance.” Inter was without their two top strikers Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Julio Ricardo Cruz due to injury.

Read more on Football Betting Results: Inter Milan and AS Roma play to 1-1 Draw

Italian Serie A club AS Roma played host to Reggina just recently for an Italian Serie A match. The AS Roma home side could made use of the home pitch advantage to earn a win. AS Roma dominated most of the possession, and eventually grabbed the 3 points for the Italian Serie A standings with a 2-0 victory.

Scoring for AS Roma were Alessandro Mancini and Christian Panucci. Also dishing out a fine performance for AS Roma were key players Francesco Totti and Ludovic Giuly.

Read more on Italian Serie A Betting: AS Roma Defeats Reggina 2-0

AS Roma vs. Real Madrid

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Italian Serie A club AS Roma have been quite formiddable in the UEFA Champions League, posting 3 wins, 2 draws and only 1 loss during the group stages. In their campaign for the Italian Serie A title, AS Roma are 2nd place so far in the standings, behind Serie A leaders Inter Milan by 8 points.

AS Roma, coached by Luciano Spalletti, will be relying on key players like David Pizarro, Philippe Mexes, Simone Perrotta, Ludovic Giuly and Francesco Totti to deliver a victory over Real Madrid.

Read more on UEFA Champions League Betting Review: AS Roma vs. Real Madrid

Italian Cup results: Inter Milan 3, Reggina 0

Italian Serie A champions Inter Milan crushed Reggina 3-0 in the 2nd leg of the Round of 16, winning 7-1 on aggregate, and advancing to the quarterfinals of the 2008 Italian Cup or 2008 Coppa Italia if you fancy the term cappucino instead of coffee.

The San Siro in Milan wasn’t filled to a capacity crowd, but those that attended the Italian Cup match between Inter Milan and Reggina were treated to a display of awesome football that resulted in 3 goals. Inter Milan striker Hernan Crespo scored the opening goal jsut a little past the half-hour mark. Reggina’s Emmanuel Cascione scored an own goal just before the break to extend Inter Milan’s advantage to 2-0. In injury time of the second half, Inter Milan’s Cesar Aparecido Rodrigues scored the 3rd goal to put the final scoreline at 3-0.

Read more on Italian Cup Betting: Inter Milan Enter Quarter-Finals With 7-1 Aggregate Win Over Reggina

Italian Serie A champions Inter Milan still maintain a stronghold at the top of the Italian Serie A standings, earning 3 more points after a 3-2 victory in Siena.

Inter Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored two goals while Esteban Cambiasso also scored a goal to book the win against Siena. Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored in the 26th minute on a penalty and in the 52nd on a powerful shot from outside the area.

“Ibrahimovic scored an extraordinary goal today,” Inter’s coach, Roberto Mancini, said of the striker’s second score. “He can do everything.”

Inter’s goalkeeper, Julio Cesar, made several difficult saves before Siena’s Fernando Forestieri scored in second-half injury time.

Read more on Italian Serie A Betting: Inter Milan Defeat Siena 3-2

Italian Serie A club AS Roma are favored to win against AC Torino in their match to compete for the Coppa Italia this coming December 20. 8 teams remain in the race for one of Italy’s most prestigious football titles.

Torino is currently at the bottom of the Italian Serie A standings. Torino is coached by Walter Novellino, who hopes to beat AS Roma through his pool of talents, which include the likes of Gianluca Comotto, Dominic Malonga, Nikola Lazetic, David Di Michele, Masahi Oguro and Alvaro Recoba.

AS Roma are second in the Italian Serie A standings with 33 points, 7 points behind Italian Serie A leaders Inter Milan with 40 points. AS Roma is coached by Luciano Spalleti, who will be looking on his pool of superstar footballers to beat Torino. Some of these superstars for AS Roma include: Philippe Mexes, Francesco Totti, Ludovic Giuly, Cicinho, Daniele De Rossi, David Pizarro and Christian Panucci.

Read more on Coppa Italia Betting: AC Torino vs. AS Roma

The group stage qualifiers have ended, and the first knockout round will kick off on February 2008 with the top 16 teams who advanced through the group stages by being among the top 2 of their respective group. Among the top 16 football clubs who qualified are: Portuguese Liga champions FC Porto, English Premiership club Liverpool, English Premier League club Chelsea, German Bundesliga club FC Schalke 04, Spanish La Liga champions Real Madrid, Super League Greece champions Olympiacos FC, UEFA Champions League title holders AC Milan, Scottish Premier League champions Celtic FC, Spanish La Liga club FC Barcelona, French Ligue 1 champions Olympique Lyon, English Premiership champions Manchester United, Italian Serie A team AS Roma, Italian Serie A champions Inter Milan, Turkish Super Lig champions Fenerbahce SK, UEFA Cup champions and Spanish Super Cup champions Sevilla FC and English Premier League club Arsenal FC.

Read more on Champions League Betting: Top 16 Football Clubs Compete For 2008 UEFA Champions League Trophy

Italian Serie A champions Inter Milan maintain their lead at the top of the Italian Serie A following a 2-0 victory against Fiorentina at Florence, Italy, over the weekend.

Inter Milan opened up the scoring in the 9th minute with a goal from Inter Milan midfielder Luis Antonio Jimenez, who received the pass from Inter Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Inter Milan’s Ibrahimovic played another asisst in the 44th minute to Inter Milan striker Julio Cruz who scored a goal to put Inter Milan up 2-0 against Fiorentina.

Read more on Italian Serie A Betting: Inter Milan Win Vs. Fiorentina 2-0

Italian Serie A club AS Roma confirmed their place in the knockout phase of the UEFA Champions League with a comfortable 4-1 win against Ukranian Premier League club FC Dynamo Kyiv that left the Ukraine side without a point in the section and ended their hopes of claiming the UEFA Cup place. The Ukranian

AS Roma were the first to open the scoring as early as the 4th minute when Christian Panucci’s low cross evaded everyone on its path and magically found its way beyond Dynamo goalkeeper Olexandr Rybka and into the net. In the 32nd minute, AS Roma doubled their advantage with a goal from Roma forward Ludovic Giuly. In the 36th minute, Roma scored again to go three goals up against Dynamo through the fine strike of Roma forward Mirko Vucinic, who made no mistake converting Giuly’s fine pass into a far corner goal.

Dynamo were able to pull back a goal on the 63rd minute when Ismael Bangoura teed up a low shot that beat Roma goalkeeper Doni.

Read more on UEFA Champions League Betting: AS Roma Advance To Champions League Final With 4-1 Victory Over Dynamo