Edoardo Bove’s lone goal in the second half sealed Roma’s victory over Bayer Leverkusen in their Europa League semi-final first leg on Thursday.
Bove scored the only goal of the match in the 63rd minute, his first European goal, at the Stadio Olimpico, allowing Jose Mourinho’s side to take a slender lead into next week’s second leg in Germany.
Roma, looking to win back-to-back European titles under coach Jose Mourinho following last season’s Europa Conference League triumph, will travel to Leverkusen next week for the return leg.
“It’s all down to the boys tonight who played with desire and the right mentality,” Mourinho said 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.”
The winner will then face Juventus or Sevilla, who drew 1-1 in their first leg, in the final.
“I’m especially happy with the result. It was essential to win this first half and go there on Thursday with the same desire.
“Today we put great intensity into our game and we are happy. At first, they made it difficult for us and it took us a while to adjust but then we controlled the game very well,” Bove said
Roma defeated Leverkusen despite having a host of players either out or barely fit to play, with Paulo Dybala and Georginio Wijnaldum entering the match with only 15 minutes to go, to help out an exhausted, largely second-string team.
Xabi Alonso’s Leverkusen, who have not made a European final since their 2002 appearance in the Champions League started the game straight on; they had two close calls – Robert Andrich’s shot within the first 40 seconds was saved by the goalkeeper and Florian Wirtz missed a clear chance when he fired off-post.
Bove jolted the net way into the second half and though Leverkusen tried all they could to equalize, the match ended 1-0, in favor of Roma.
