European Football Cup
“Bayer Leverkusen, the perfect machine”
As of: 10:59 a.m. | Reading time: 2 minutes
“You have nothing to lose, we have everything to lose,” warns Alonso
Xabi Alonso happily high-fived his players in the impressive Stadio Olimpico in Rome – for Bayer Leverkusen the triple chance is greater than ever. The German champions defeated AS Roma on Thursday and laid the foundation for a place in the final of the Europa League.
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Bayer 04 Leverkusen wins 2-0 at AS Roma and has one foot in the Europa League final. The Italian media pays homage to the German team, which has not lost a game this season.
The TV broadcast of Bayer Leverkusen’s first leg in the semi-finals of the Europa League gave RTL top ratings. According to the Cologne broadcaster, an average of 5.13 million people saw the German soccer champions’ 2-0 (1-0) win at AS Roma on Thursday evening on free TV. The market share was 22.3 percent, making it the highest for the current Europa League season.
Not only RTL viewers, but also the Italian media were enthusiastic about the team, which was still undefeated this season. The “Corriere della Sera” described the Leverkusen team, who have been unbeaten in 47 games, as “the perfect machine” and stated: “If you give the unbeatable a goal when the game is in the balance (…) the unbeatable become even more unbeatable.”
Same look, different opinion: Rome’s Leonardo Spinazzola (l.) and Leverkusen’s Robert Andrich
Those: AP/Alfredo Falcone
The “Repubblica” from Rome saw the Roma in a “valley of death” after a “dark night between mistakes and gifts. A miracle will be needed in Leverkusen.” There is a simple recipe for that: “Score two goals in the hell of the BayArena without conceding one and then hope that the wind still blows in your stomach.”
“It was her evening tonight. And it’s just her year.”
The “Gazzetta dello Sport” also wrote: “Now a miracle will be necessary. Or something like that. Bayer Leverkusen has proven to be unbeatable, at least for the time being. Roma kept up for a while (…), but then the difference in quality became clear in every corner of the pitch.”
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Rome coach Daniele De Rossi still has hope of reaching the final on May 22nd in Dublin against Olympique Marseille or Atalanta Bergamo, who drew 1-1 in the first leg. “I firmly believe in it, even if it will be difficult, but we will not give up,” said the 2006 world champion. But not least the fact that Bayer has not lost any of its 47 competitive games makes the Roman mission very unlikely. “It was her night tonight,” said De Rossi: “And it’s just her year.”
