ROME: An imposing stadium in a major foreign capital did nothing to stop Bayer Leverkusen’s record unbeaten march across Europe.

The newly-crowned first-time Bundesliga champions, who recently overtook Juventus to claim the European record for the longest unbeaten streak across all competitions, silenced the Stadio Olimpico with a 2-0 win at AS Roma in the first leg of the Europa League semi-finals on Thursday to extend their remarkable run to 47 matches across all competitions.

Goals in each half from Florian Wirtz and Robert Andrich ensured victory for Xabi Alonso’s men in the Italian capital and gave the Bundesliga champions a great chance of reaching the final in Dublin later this month.

Leverkusen will meet either Atalanta or Olympique de Marseille in Ireland should they hold out in Germany next week, and on the evidence of their performance in Rome they will be firm favourites to win their first European trophy since the old UEFA Cup in 1988.

Alonso’s team have needed a string of last-gasp goals to keep their unbeaten run going in recent weeks but there was no need for any frantic finishes as Leverkusen’s superiority was fully on display.

“We had a lot of chances to score a third but they also had a good chance to cut the deficit right at the end. We’re happy with the result,” Alonso told reporters.

“We fought well and showed a mature performance with a lot of discipline. We defended closely and compactly, so we are satisfied with the performance. But the return match has not yet been played.”

The result also marked a measure of revenge for Leverkusen — since Roma had beaten the German club in this exact same stage last season for their last defeat in Europe.

Roma were dangerous with an early header off the crossbar from Romelu Lukaku. But then Leverkusen scored on the counterattack seven minutes later.

A failed back-pass from Roma right back Rick Karsdorp under pressure from Alex Grimaldo on the left flank resulted in a 3-on-1 for Leverkusen. Grimaldo then passed to Wirtz, who calmly slotted in from the centre of the area.

The visitors continued to dominate and Andrich made it 2-0 in the 73rd minute, leaving Roma goalkeeper Mile Svilar with no chance when he fired an unstoppable shot from outside the box and under the bar.

Roma had a late chance in stoppage time through substitute Tammy Abraham, whose misplaced header from point-blank range sailed narrowly above the bar.

Roma have reached the semi-final stage of a major European competition for the fourth consecutive season but Daniele De Rossi’s team face a huge task if they are to reach a third European final in as many years.

“We played against a good team and if you go behind against them it becomes very difficult,” De Rossi told Sky. “We’ve managed to score early in games before and get things going our way. Let’s say it was a bit different tonight. We had an incredible chance right at the end which would have given us a different outlook for the return leg.”

The other semi-final tie is finely poised going into the return after Marseille were held to a 1-1 home draw by Atalanta.

Gianluca Scamacca put the visitors ahead after 11 minutes when Teun Koopmeiners found him unmarked in the box to fire low into the far post for his 16th goal in all competitions this season.

Chancel Mbemba equalised for Marseille nine minutes later with a superb long-range strike that hit the post and into the net following a corner.

The draw means it will be all to play for in the second leg in Bergamo next Thursday, although Atalanta will be the favourites, as they dream of reaching a European final for the first time in their history.

“It is good for us to come away from here unbeaten,” said Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini. “It is a very positive result for us because Marseille were strong. They have only lost once here all season and we found out why that is tonight.”

Marseille, who are appearing in their third European semi-final in seven years, have been much stronger in front of their own fans this season, with Paris St Germain the only visiting team to win at the Velodrome over 90 minutes in any competition.

However, Marseille have struggled on their travels and just reaching the semi-finals was a fine achievement for a club who are outside the European places in Ligue 1 and are on their third coach of the campaign.

“I am not completely satisfied because we had two or three chances to win the match 2-1,” Marseille’s current coach, Jean-Louis Gasset, told UEFA.com. “But it is only half-time in the tie and we are going to go and give everything in Italy.”

EL KAABI HAT-TRICK HANDS OLYMPIAKOS SHOCK WIN

In the third-tier Europa Confe­rence League semi-final first legs, Aston Villa’s hopes of reaching a first European final since 1982 were diminished with a 4-2 home loss to Olympiakos, the first defeat at Villa Park in the European campaign for the last English club in European competitions.

Villa came back from 2-0 down but was not able to answer Ayoub El Kaabi’s third goal of the game. The striker converted from the penalty spot to make it 3-2 for his eighth goal in the competition this season. Santiago Hezze finished the scoring before Douglas Luiz wasted a penalty for Villa.

Olympiakos are aiming to play on home soil in the May 29 final in Athens.

Earlier, El Kaabi scored twice within a half hour put the visitors in charge.

“Everything that could go wrong did go wrong tonight,” said Villa captain John McGinn. “Just mistakes all round tonight. We take responsibility but it is up to us to go to Greece next week and turn it around because we are more than capable.”

In Florence, substitute M’Bala Nzola netted in stoppage time for last-year’s runners-up Fiorentina to secure a 3-2 victory over 10-man Club Brugge.

Brugge’s Raphael Onyedika was sent off after receiving his second yellow card on the hour when the Italian club were 2-1 up but the visitors equalised through Igor Thiago to complete a counter just minutes later.

Riccardo Sottil put Fiorentina ahead early on, Brugge captain Hans Vanaken answered with an equaliser from the penalty spot and then Andrea Belotti restored the lead for Fiorentina on a rebound.

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2024