Edoardo Bove fired Roma to a 1-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen in a decent first leg of their Europa League semi-final on Thursday.
Bove scored the one purpose of the sport within the 63rd minute on the Stadio Olimpico, permitting Jose Mourinho’s facet to take a slender lead into subsequent week’s second leg in Germany.
The win provides Mourinho the prospect to succeed in his second European ultimate in as a few years as Roma coach after profitable the Europa Conference League final season.
“It’s all down to the boys tonight who played with desire and the right mentality,” Mourinho stated to Sky Sport.
“I have put in a lot of miles over the course of my career, but even I really felt the support of the fans tonight, and the boys responded with the desire to make them happy.”
Roma took the win regardless of having a bunch of gamers both out or barely match to play, with stars Paulo Dybala and Georginio Wijnaldum solely approaching within the ultimate quarter-hour to assist out an exhausted, largely second-string workforce.
“Roma were a bit more dangerous in the second half, but we had the feeling that we could beat them in their own backyard,” stated Leverkusen goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky.
“It’s not the best result for us, but it could have been worse.”
Battling Roma
A turgid first half had little in the best way of a goalmouth incident, with every workforce having one good alternative every.
First Florian Wirtz shot a really presentable likelihood simply extensive within the seventh minute after exchanging passes with Adam Hlozek on the sting of the penalty space.
But it was Roma which was questioning the way it didn’t open the scoring 12 minutes later when Roger Ibanez’s header from a Lorenzo Pellegrini free-kick was well-saved by Hradecky.
And Tammy Abraham didn’t faucet in from the rebound, leaving the house followers open-mouthed on the newest blunder from their misfiring English striker.
Very little occurred between then and when Roma took the lead simply after the hour mark, youth product Bove inflicting an eruption within the stands, which as much as that time had regarded nearly inconceivable.
Bove began the transfer, which led to the purpose, charging ahead earlier than feeding Abraham, whose spin and shot led to the ball falling to the younger midfielder, who lashed within the opener.
From there, Roma retreated into its defensive shell, pondering it may maintain off Leverkusen.
However, it survived an enormous scare with three minutes remaining when goalkeeper Rui Patricio and Ibanez bumped into each other whereas making an attempt to clear Wirtz’s cross.
The ball dropped for Jeremie Frimpong, however the Dutch ahead may solely fireplace his shot into Bryan Cristante.
A cascade of whistles got here from the stands as followers begged referee Michael Oliver to blow his whistle.
When the Englishman duly obliged, either side have been left nonetheless within the operating to face both Sevilla or Juventus within the Budapest ultimate.
Source: sportstar.thehindu.com