Torino vs AS Roma preview - Garcia hails 'magical' Roma

Posted Saturday, November 02, 2013 by PA

Roma coach Rudi Garcia has saluted his record-breaking players ahead of Sunday's Serie A match at Torino.

A 1-0 victory over Chievo on Thursday allowed the capital side to set a league record of 10 successive victories at the start of a season.

"This is a fantastic run of results for us," Garcia said. "I have a magical squad.

"The players give everything and everyone is rowing in the same direction. They all want to win and they give everything on the pitch.

"This is the secret to our success so far."

The latest victory lifted Roma five points clear of nearest rivals Napoli and Juventus at the top of the division.

Frenchman Garcia does not want his players to ease up and has his mind set on extending the run to 11 games.

"We have very little time to celebrate as we have one day less than Torino to prepare for our game," Garcia said. "We have to recover our energy."

Roma, who are still without injured strikers Gervinho and Francesco Totti, will be hoping Marco Borriello can increase his goals tally.

The Italian forward scored his first goal for Roma since May 2011 on Thursday to hand his team their historic win.

Opponents Torino face a stern test as they take on the best defence and attack in Serie A this season. Roma have conceded just one goal while they have found the net 24 times.

Adding to the case against Torino is the fact the home side will have six players unavailable through injury.

"Against Roma we will be in a critical situation," Torino coach Giampiero Ventura said. "We haven't recovered any injured players and to make matters worse, (midfielder Giuseppe) Vives will serve a one-match ban."

Torino go into the game in Turin on the back of Wednesday's 3-3 result at Livorno - a fourth draw in their last six games.

Alessio Cerci converted a late penalty to hand his team a valuable point and lift Torino to 12th place.

Torino have not won since beating Bologna 2-1 on September 22.