ROME, May 7 - Inter Milan face AS Roma in the
first leg of the Italian Cup final for the third year running on
Wednesday as they bid for a second successive league and cup
double.
The first leg at Rome's Olympic Stadium has been moved to a
late afternoon kick-off because of fears of crowd trouble in the
evening, with the second leg due to take place at the San Siro
on May 17.
Inter, who retained the league title last month with five
games to spare, beat Roma over two legs in the 2005 and 2006
finals but could find this season's showpiece tougher going
after injuries hit some of their top players.
Striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic is out for the season, with
defender Walter Samuel and Maicon also not expected to return
this term.
Second-placed Roma will also be buoyed by their 3-1 win over
Inter last month which delayed the title party for Roberto
Mancini's side and inflicted their only league defeat of the
season.
Roma looked in good form in their 2-1 win at Palermo on
Sunday with captain Francesco Totti netting his 22nd league goal
of the campaign with a superb swerving free-kick.
Inter won 1-0 at Messina to ring up a record 15th away win
in the league this season and afterwards Luis Figo, who
confirmed he would be leaving the club, turned his attention to
the final first leg.
"We have run a lot this season and physically we're not as
we were at the start, but the same goes for Roma and I think we
will be at the same physical level," he was quoted as saying on
Inter's official Web site (www.inter.it).
Despite the injury problems, Mancini rested several
first-teamers against Messina ahead of Wednesday's match, with
goalkeeper Francesco Toldo replacing Julio Cesar.
(Writing by Mark Meadows in Milan)