Author – Amrit Santlani
The first legs of the Europa League semi-final were played on Thursday night, with AS Roma hosting Bayer Leverkusen, while Sevilla traveled to Turin to face Juventus. José Mourinho’s side eventually secured a narrow 1-0 lead at the Stadio Olimpico thanks to Edoardo Bove’s goal, which separates the two sides ahead of the second leg.
At the Allianz Stadium, Youssef En-Nesyri continued his excellent scoring form by putting the La Liga side ahead, but Federico Gatti scored late on to secure a valuable goal and a draw for the Old Lady against Sevilla ahead of the second leg at the Sanchez Pizjuan.
Edoardo Bove’s goal gives AS Roma a slight lead on aggregate
The Bundesliga club got off to a promising start. Rui Patrício saved a shot from Robert Andrich early on and then Florian Wirtz raced clear of two Roma defenders, but the German wonderkid’s shot went just wide of the goal.
At the other end, the hosts won a free-kick and almost opened the scoring, had it not been for Lukas Hradecky’s first-time save to deny Roger Ibañez. The ball reached Tammy Abraham, but the Englishman was unable to divert the rebound.
In the second half, Mourinho’s men continued to knock on the door; Leverkusen dealt with Lorenzo Pellegrini’s free-kick, before Roma finally opened the scoring.
The Englishman passed to Bove, who laid the ball back to the striker, whose attempt was saved by Hradecky, but Bove was on hand to tap home the rebound and put his side ahead just after the penalty spot.
Xabi Alonso’s men almost had a goal to save when Patrício made a mistake and allowed Jeremie Frimpong to shoot on goal, but Bryan Cristante made a great save to prevent his side’s embarrassment. The Serie A club managed to maintain their lead and are just ninety minutes away from reaching the final of a continental competition for the second year running.
Gatti saves Juventus with last-minute equalizer
Sevilla started the game on the front foot. Lucas Ocampos tested Wojciech Szczęsny early on, but the Polish goalkeeper made a comfortable save. At the other end, Ángel di María split the visitors’ defense with a covering pass, but Dusan Vlahovic was saved by two brilliant saves from Yassine Bounou.
The Serbian striker wasted a glorious chance to score when he shot over the bar with the goal gaping after a fine cross from Filip Kostić. Ocampos was guilty of missing an equally good chance at the other end, but contributed to helping the Spanish club open the scoring.
Ocampos’ cross was finished expertly by En-Nesyri to give his side an early lead just before the half-hour mark. The Moroccan could have doubled Sevilla’s lead after being set through on goal by Óliver Torres, but he missed his shot under Danilo’s challenge.
Ivan Rakitic scored a fine goal from the edge of the box, but it was blocked by Szczesny, ending an entertaining first half. Samuel Iling-Junior tested Bono from distance after the break, before Juventus worked throughout, although they managed to score the equalizer in the last minute of stoppage time.
The six-time Europa League winners’ defense was completely shut down, and Paul Pogba assisted on a corner kick to Gatti, who headed it in from two meters out. It was an impressive display from Brazilian full-backs Danilo and Alex Sandro, while Fernando also impressed for Sevilla.