For Roma Captain, It Is Not Over Yet As De Rossi Reveals Why Leverkusen Played With No Striker
Written By Onyeka Daniel
It wasn’t the expected result for AS Roma in the Europa League semi-final first leg clash against Bayer Leverkusen at the Stadio Olimpico with the recently crowned German Champions securing a 2-goal lead going into the second leg in Germany.
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For the Giallorossi captain, Lorenzo Pellegrini, he remained bullish after the home defeat, insisting Roma played well and Bayer Leverkusen ‘probably think they already qualified.’ The Giallorossi had the early chances and rattled the frame of the goal with a Romelu Lukaku header before the Rick Karsdorp howler gifted the opening goal to Florian Wirtz.
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The away side, who have never lost a game this season, secured a second after the restart with Robert Andrich hitting a scorcher into the top corner, while Tammy Abraham missed an open goal in stoppages that would’ve at least narrowed the gap. However, when asked if Roma’s big regret was that Karsdorp error, Pellegrini had a different take.
“The regret is that they scored two goals and we scored zero,” the captain told Sky Sport Italia. “I think we played really well, unfortunately we wasted many opportunities to hurt them, we kept producing chances to the end and they go home probably thinking they’ve already qualified.
“Instead, we go home preparing Sunday’s match in Serie A and then hope to cause them problems in the second leg.” Roma will have another very tough game coming up this weekend, a clash against Juventus as they try to keep Atalanta at bay for the fifth place. The La Dea were also in the Europa League semi-final this evening, leaving Olympique Marseille with a 1-1 scoreline.
What do the Giallorossi need to do differently compared to this performance against Bayer Leverkusen when the second leg is played next Thursday? “Compared to tonight, the only thing we need to improve is scoring goals, as I don’t know how many chances we created,” continued Pellegrini.
“They are a strong team and created opportunities on the counter-attack when sitting deep and going with pace, but we still managed to find those spaces. “We must try to be more clinical next Thursday, because if we play like we did today and have a bit more luck on our side, I believe we can turn this around.”
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For their coach, Daniele De Rossi, he admitted that ‘this is Leverkusen’s year,’ but believes Roma can still have their say after losing 2-0 at home. “We played against a strong team that make it very difficult if they take the lead. We were too frenetic after the goal trying to get back into it, we had started aggressive and winning it back quickly, which was what we wanted,” De Rossi told Sky Sport Italia.
Karsdorp was jeered off the pitch when substituted by Angelino, as his error was truly a gift to Bayer Leverkusen. “So often in Europe we scored early and the game went our way, but this was the opposite. Football is all about incidents, it would be unfair of us to point to a single error tonight when we took advantage of mistakes in previous games. These things happen.
“Sometimes, in fact almost aways, incidents change a match, but there were still a good 60-70 minutes left to play after that. We also had that chance to score at the end and go there with a different scoreline. “This is Leverkusen’s year, they won the Bundesliga, they do not just have quality, but also a great deal of physicality and stamina.”
Romelu Lukaku hit the crossbar with his header when it was still 0-0, then Tammy Abraham incredibly nodded over from a yard in stoppages when it simply had to be 1-2. “You never know, it could happen in the second leg that we hit the crossbar and it goes in rather than out, the tide turns and we go from there to win. I believe, definitely,” insisted the coach.
Roma seemed psychologically shaken by going behind in those circumstances and risked conceding several more before half-time. “We will change something. We’ve got many games in a short period of time. If you push hard and press high, it can open up spaces for quick, quality players who can get behind us. The approach was the right one at the start, but when we went behind, we could’ve done a lot of things better.
“I saw us get too emotional and swept up after going behind against Bologna too, so that is something we need to work on. I am sure we will have our say in Leverkusen and hope that luck goes our way a bit more too.” Xabi Alonso had surprised everyone when announcing his starting XI, as both strikers Victor Boniface and Patrik Schick were on the bench, instead Amine Adli used as a False 9.
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“Most of their games had a centre-forward, whether Schick or Boniface, but against Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund they played this way. We analysed it, we saw they do that against teams they fear or ones who are very strong going forward,” acknowledged De Rossi.
“When these teams defend like that, you need to move the ball around quickly, as when you lose it, then can counter at speed. We’ll analyse this match again, but I think we did the right thing in the first half.
“This is a very strong Bayer Leverkusen team who had nothing else to focus on, having already won the Bundesliga and remain unbeaten all season. “You can only do so much against Leverkusen’s physicality. They have a lot of pace and power, our players perhaps have more technique and quality on the ball. We need to time our moves properly and we have to be perfect.” He further added.
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