Roma host Real Madrid in Champions League test at the Olimpico
AS Roma face Real Madrid at the Stadio Olimpico on 14 October in Matchday 2 of the UEFA Champions League league stage, a fixture that pits two sides with contrasting recent momentum against each other.
Real Madrid arrive on the back of four wins from their last five matches, with their only blemish a single defeat, while Roma have gone unbeaten in their own recent run, picking up two wins and three draws without a loss.
A history that favours the visitors
The two clubs have met five times before, all of them ending in victory for Real Madrid. Their most recent European meetings came in the 2018-19 Champions League group stage, when Real Madrid won both legs 2-0 and 3-0, following an earlier run of wins stretching back to 2016 and a 2018 friendly success in the International Champions Cup.
That record gives this latest encounter an extra edge, with Roma looking to end a long wait for a positive result against Real Madrid on home soil.
What is at stake
With both sides unbeaten in their last five matches bar Real Madrid's solitary loss, the match offers an early marker in the league-stage standings. Roma's recent draws have kept them competitive without translating into the same volume of wins that Real Madrid have managed, a gap that could prove significant if Tuesday's game follows a similar pattern.
For Roma, the occasion also arrives amid a period of sustained attention on their position in Serie A, with the club keen to carry their domestic form into a demanding European test against one of the competition's most successful sides.