The Giallorossi will face Cluj on Wednesday, after the two teams' first clash in Rome ended in a surprising 2-1 win for the Romanian newcomers.

"We now have a different team than the one that faced Cluj in September," Totti was quoted as saying by Corriere dello Sport.

"It's necessary to win this game if we want to reach the Champions League knock-out stages."

After a slow start to their season, which saw the team trailing at the bottom half of Serie A, Roma started coming back to winning ways by beating Chelsea in the Champions League as well as successive league triumphs against Lazio and Lecce.

Baptista's optimism

Brazilian forward Julio Baptista, who scored his club's crucial winner against Lazio in the Roman derby, agreed with Totti that the team is only getting better with time.

"The worst has passed. All we need to do now is maintain the recent positive results and the good picture will be complete," said the former Real Madrid player.

The 27-year-old added that the massive support offered by the Roman die hard fans will be a crucial factor in pushing the team out of their crisis.

"The fans' enthusiasm here is exceptional. I've never experienced that anywhere else, even at Real Madrid."

Roma enter the Cluj encounter second-placed of Group A with six points, one less than leaders Chelsea and two ahead of Cluj, who are fourth.