Thursday, May 11, 2023 at 10:56 PM• Sam Fearwijk

AS Roma has won the first leg with Bayer Leverkusen in the semi-finals of the Europa League. Jose Mourinho’s team won 1-0 in their own Stadio Olimpico. The only goal was scored in the second half by Edoardo Bove, who was accurate for the first time in a European tournament. The return in Leverkusen will follow next Thursday at 9 p.m.

For most Dutch people, the starting positions of both parties were somewhat disappointing: only one of our five compatriots started this game in the starting line-up. Only Jeremie Frimpong was allowed to show it from the first minute on the side of Bayer Leverkusen. Mitchel Bakker and Timothy Fosu-Mensah started on the bench with the visitors, while Daley Sinkgraven was not included in the selection at all. At AS Roma, Rick Karsdorp and Georginio Wijnaldum also had to settle for a reserve role.

In the mediocre first half, both sides had one big chance. First it was Leverkusen that smelled the opening goal early in the game, when Florian Wirtz shot just wide after a combination with Adam Hložek. After just under twenty minutes there was also the first Roman danger, but Roger Ibañez’s header was beautifully turned by goalkeeper Lukás Hrádecký. The rebound didn’t go in after that either. Bakker came on as early as the 36th minute, due to a hamstring injury at Odilon Kossounou.

After the break, the biggest chances were for Roma, and that resulted in the 1-0 after more than an hour of play. An attempt from Tammy Abraham’s turn was turned by Hrádecký, but Bove was quick to tap the ball in from the rebound. Not much later, Roma was also close to 2-0: Andrea Belotti saw his bet turned by Hrádecký, after which Bove worked the rebound high this time. Just before the end, with Wijnaldum already lined up, Frimpong had a huge chance to make it 1-1: goalkeeper Rui Patrício let go and the ball ended up with Frimpong, but his bet was taken off the line by Bryan Cristante. Therefore 1-0 was the final score.