fc basel 1893 may be without a point in group e but their visit to as roma has got both coaches harking back to the swiss side's 2-0 defeat of the giallorossi last year.
claudio ranieri, roma coach
basel are a good side who came close to beating bayern in the previous game. but we know them well too because we lost against them last season in the uefa europa league. so i want to see roma focused and organised like when they defeated genoa. we know both their strengths and their weak points so we will go out there to win.
mirko vučinić, jérémy menez and daniele de rossi have not recovered from their injuries and are not even in the squad. i hope to have them back for the following game but they cannot even make it to the bench this time around. david pizarro has not trained regularly recently but i think i will be able to use him even if he is not in peak physical condition. matteo brighi should replace de rossi in midfield. he is an example to all his team-mates because he never fails to give 100% whenever he is called to play.
thorsten fink, basel coach
i'm very happy to be here in rome, again. last year both teams were in the uefa europa league but this season we are opponents in the uefa champions league: this means we had a great season and both have to be proud of this. i think that both lineups are similar to last season, when we beat roma. we know this is our chance to get a second victory and all the basel players know this. we have no fear about this match.
we'll have to be calm, we'll have to be strong and physical and to find the net, why not, at the end of it. have i come here to win? for sure. otherwise, if i came here to get a draw, probably we would lose. our aim, in fact, is to change the group standings, because basel want to go forward in the champions league, even if we know that going into the europa league wouldn't be such a bad result.
