FILE PHOTO: AS Roma player Edoardo Beve celebrates after scoring the team's first goal `during the UEFA Europa League semi-final first leg match between AS Roma and Bayer 04 Leverkusen at Stadio Olimpico on May 11, 2023 in Rome, Italy. PICTURE: Getty Images
0 
0 ROME: Edoardo Bove’s second-half goal gave Jose Mourinho’s side the advantage going into the second leg in a week’s time.
AS Roma won a first-leg match of the European League semi-finals at home against a German outfit, Bayer Leverkusen, to boost its chances of reaching the second European finals in two successive seasons, thanks to a solitary goal by Edoardo Bove in the second stanza of the game. If the first-leg match, which pitted Jose Mourinho against his former player at Real Madrid, Xabi Alonso, who is now a Bayer Leverkusen coach, is anything to go by, then the second-leg match would be yet another exciting clash.
The visitors started the game like a house on fire, attacking Roma from the first whistle. Within the first five minutes, Leverkusen had squandered two good chances to take the lead. The first attempt at goal came in the very first minute following a good interplay by the visitors to unlock Roma’s defense, but Rui Patricio made a routine save.
As the match went on, Mourinho’s men started to ease themselves into the game and created goalscoring opportunities. The home side’s first clear-cut chance came from a set play in the 18th minute. Roma’s defender Roger Ibanez had a golden opportunity to put his side ahead, but his free header was superbly saved by Lukas Hradecky.
With both sides squandering their chances, it was goalless at half-time. The second half started with both teams attacking each other in search of the opening goal.
The search for Roma ended in the 62nd minute when Edoardo Bove slotted the ball past an outstretched Hradecky. The home side had a superior second half, creating better scoring opportunities in the search for the second goal.
Roma could have doubled their lead, but Andrea Belotti was denied by Hradecky, who was called into action again in the 66th minute.
A moment of madness from Roma at the back nearly gave Leverkusen the equaliser, when Patricio collided with his own player and the ball fell kindly for a Leverkusen player, but Jeremie Frimpong’s goal-bound attempt was stopped by a defender just before the goal line in the 87th minute.
AS Rome heads to the second leg with a slight advantage, but the reigning Europa Conference League champions would have to redouble their effort in order to reach their second European final in two seasons. With the Europa League providing a winner with a passage to the UEFA champions league, there is much at stake for the two sides to play for in the second leg.
About Author
