In the semi-finals of the Europa League, Bayer Leverkusen will face AS Roma again (today from 9 p.m. in the radio report and in the live ticker on the Sportschau). But the Romans have changed since last year. The bus is rarely parked in front of the gate anymore, as it was in Mourinho’s time. But Roma is competing with Leverkusen when it comes to last-minute qualities.
Daniele De Rossi has a good connection to Leverkusen. The AS Roma coach is regularly in contact with one of the most prominent in the Bavarian city. It’s about football, but not just when De Rossi and Rudi Völler text each other.
“We’ve been friends for I don’t know how many years,” the DFB sports director, who lives in Leverkusen, tells the “Gazzetta dello Sport”. And praised the new Roman coach before the Europa League semi-final against Bayer: “He is on the way to becoming a great coach.”
De Rossi, who was active as a player in Rome in 2004 under short-term coach Völler, made a remarkable start on the bench of the “Giallorossi” (yellow-red). In 13 Serie A games, the 2006 world champion collected as many points as his predecessor José Mourinho in 20 games – and thus brought his heart club back into the race for the Champions League places.
Above all, the 40-year-old has transformed AS Roma’s style of football. Völler also says about his friend De Rossi: “He plays completely differently than Mourinho.”
Jose Mourinho (r.) and Xabi Alonso at last year’s semi-final
In 2023, Mourinho’s tactics will cause anger
Many in Leverkusen were foaming at the mouth a year ago when Bayer, also in the Europa League semi-finals, were eliminated by Roma, who were then still coached by José Mourinho. In keeping with the Portuguese’s motto that “sugar should be poured into the opponent’s tank” from time to time, the Romans secured their lead with time play, theatrical treatment of injuries and a bus parked in front of the goal. Bayer’s sports director, Simon Rolfes, found it a “scam” that AS Roma and not Leverkusen made it to the final.
Now Bayer meets a changed Roma. Mourinho was sacked in January due to ineffectiveness, De Rossi prescribed forward-oriented combination play and pressing to the team (“I want to win through good football”). With a 4-3-3 basic formation, the “Giallorossi” are on the rise in Serie A. Even if a little of the initial momentum has been lost in recent weeks after the change of coach and recently only four points were scored in three games in Serie A. The Romans retained resilience as a characteristic. In the quarter-finals of the Europa League against Milan, AS played outnumbered for over an hour and managed to maintain their lead thanks largely to a fabulous defensive performance.
AS Roma also often score late
There is a lot of respect in Italy before the semi-final against Leverkusen. The “Gazzetta” and the “Corriere dello Sport” dubbed the German champion “gli invincibili”, the invincibles, because of his record statistics. But De Rossi says: Leverkusen is “undefeated, but not unbeatable” and the duel with Germany’s top team will be “an extremely difficult, but not impossible task.” AS is in the semi-finals of a European competition for the fourth time in a row.
A special quality of Roma: scoring goals at the last minute – something the Leverkusen team also understands. In Serie A, no team scores as many goals in the final stages as AS Roma. The capital team scored 20 times in the last quarter of an hour. At the weekend against Naples, Abraham equalized in the 88th minute; previously against Udinese, Cristante had headed the winning goal in the sixth minute of stoppage time. In general, corner, header, goal is a popular triad for Roma in the final phase.
Goal scorer Lukaku fit again
De Rossi will have to do without his right-hand man in the back four against Leverkusen, Zeki Celik, after a red card in the quarter-finals. Romelu Lukaku returns to the team. Rome’s top scorer in the Europa League has recovered from a minor muscle injury. De Rossi also hopes that Chris Smalling will be available as defense boss. The injury-prone Englishman recently had to sit out the league, but with him the Roma defense is of much higher quality.
Rudi Völler will also be there in the stands of the sold-out Stadio Olimpico. He was active for both Rome and Leverkusen, but now Völler is simply hoping for “a good game”. The fans of the “Giallorossi” still revere Völler as “tedesco volante” (flying German). He himself calls his five years as a player in Rome an “unforgettable time”. Who will win the semi-final duel between his two heart clubs, Leverkusen and Rome? This time, Völler believes, “the one who plays better and deserves to survive the round.”