It bubbled, hissed, steamed, cracked and thundered as the teams from AS Roma and Bayer Leverkusen lined up for the souvenir photo before kick-off, and long after it had started, the fire brigade officers on duty inside the Olympic Stadium were to stay for quite a while be busy collecting the purple flares that came flying out of the fan stand. Locals presented a banner with the slogan “Love for Rome is our law” – of course in Latin, the national language.
So it began appropriately festive, the first of the two semi-final evenings; the Leverkusen players, rarely seen on such occasions, knew that great things awaited them.
In the first round, however, the Romans were allowed to celebrate. The seventh in Serie A won 1-0 and earned the success with the majority of goal chances. Bayer was in danger, but knew how to free himself. The loss of the injured foreman Robert Andrich, who needed the help of the supervisors to hobble off the field, is perhaps more worrying than the narrow deficit.
It started in a way that almost couldn’t have started better for Leverkusen. The stopwatch hadn’t recorded 48 seconds when Andrich almost put a cruel end to the spectacle that was still going on in the stands. Piero Hincapie, Bayer’s left winger, had successfully launched a surprise attack and nailed the ball down the middle, but Andrich ran into position half a step too quickly and couldn’t put the power behind the shot that Roma’s Portuguese goalkeeper Rui Patricio, well-known from World and European Championships, carefree.
The Roman team, which is just as internationally mixed as their own, was shown no less respect by the Leverkusen team than is required in a European Cup semi-final. But the Roman coach spread more awe. José Mourinho, now in his 60s, winner of every conceivable national and international cup, has a reputation for making big plans for big games. Rarely are these concepts that focus on one’s own attacking game, mostly those that are intended to make life difficult for the opponent.
But initially the wheels of the obstruction did not interlock, Bayer was not only the more researched and dynamic team in the first few minutes, but also the more dangerous team. Florian Wirtz introduced himself with a magical moment that probably even Mourinho secretly enjoyed. The 20-year-old danced his way through the red defensive wall like a ballerina and after a one-two with Adam Hlozek suddenly found himself ready to finish. Wirtz aimed for the corner, but pushed the ball just wide of the post (6th minute).
Wirtz misses the big chance at the beginning
Whatever Bayer strategist Xabi Alonso came up with, it seemed to work brilliantly. But the Leverkusen team couldn’t keep up the high level of the overture, and gradually one or the other player was getting nervous. Uncertainties in the teamwork crept in and Jonathan Tah, coming too late, committed a foul that the referee mercifully disregarded the yellow card. The 0:1 threatened the next moment, but Lukas Hradecky parried Roma’s Roger Ibanez’s header. Great deed of him.
Roma got stronger, Bayer went into retreat. Attacks against the build-up of play were not made in front of the center line, ball wins were rare and fast counterattacks, Bayer’s specialty, even rarer. Bayer found himself wedged in the penalty area for a few minutes, then the pressure eased again and the game went on until the half-time whistle. 0:0, so far so good from the guests’ point of view.
But the Romans immediately tightened their attack again, Edmond Tapsoba saved from Ibanez in dire need, and just when the worst seemed to be over, the hosts struck: Hradecky was able to deflect Tammy Abraham’s shot, but stopped Edoardo Bove from pursuing he powerless. The Italian night lit up from the bonfires in the curve.
Bayer managed to contain the Romans’ euphoria with dogged resistance and occasional hard attacks, but their own attacking game rarely found its target. The fast duet of Jeremie Frimpong and Moussa Diaby hardly made an appearance. The opponent served the best chance to equalize: Patricio dropped the ball right in front of Diaby’s feet – defender Cristante blocked his shot on the line. The equalizer would have done Bayer good against the ripped-off eleven of the even more ripped-off coach Mourinho, but even so there is every hope for a reunion in the Bayarena.
