Head coach Xabi Alonso made six changes to his starting line-up from the 5-1 win at Eintracht Frankfurt, with Matej Kovar resuming his role as the goalkeeper in the Europa League. The first opportunity of the evening fell to Roma striker Romelu Lukaku after four minutes, but the Belgian took a heavy touch and Kovar was able to gather. For the Werkself, Adam Hlozek was at the heart of the link-up play in attack, while the visitors from Italy mostly opted for the long ball. Exequiel Palacios registered the first attempt on the Roma goal on 16 minutes. The action livened up after that and AS captain Lorenzo Pellegrini tested Kovar with a header.
On it went with a deflected shot and a dangerous free kick from Hlozek. Leverkusen then really should've led after a big double chance for Amine Adli and Hlozek in the 39th minute. They were punished a few minutes later when referee Danny Makkelie suddenly pointed to the spot from a cross, having spotted a tug on the shirt of Werkself loanee Sardar Azmoun by Jonathan Tah in the box. Leandro Paredes made no mistake from the resulting penalty to give Roma the lead, and the half-time whistle followed shortly.
With both sides unchanged, the early exchanges in the second half belonged to the Werkself, for whom Adli fired the first effort on 54 minutes. After that, the momentum swung back towards the visitors - and things became confusing. A good two minutes had passed after a Roma corner before play was stopped and referee Makkelie interrupted the match on the advice of the VAR. The Dutchman watched the replay of the earlier corner and pointed to the penalty spot for the second time on the night because of an unintentional handball from Hlozek in the box. Paredes again stepped up, and the Argentinian again found the net to level the aggregate score.
While two spot-kicks had been enough for the Giallorossi, Adli missed chance number 23 of the game for Leverkusen. With Florian Wirtz now on the pitch, Alejandro Grimaldo took a corner in the 83rd minute - and it bounced off the body of Roma's Gianluca Mancini and into the net! There were frenzied celebrations among those in black and red, with Dublin within their grasp. But that wasn't it. The almost inevitable happened: in the seventh minute of added time, substitute Josip Stanisic fired the ball into the net to make it 2-2 on the night. The run goes on, but far more importantly: the Werkself are in the final of a European competition for the third time in the club's history!
The Werkself conclude the 33rd and penultimate matchday of this Bundesliga season on Sunday 12 May (kick-off 19:30 CEST) away to VfL Bochum 1848. One week later, Bayer 04 will be presented with the Bundesliga trophy for the first time following the home clash against FC Augsburg on Saturday 18 May (15:30 CEST).
Match stats
Bayer 04: Kovar - Frimpong (Stanisic 90'), Tapsoba, Tah, Hincapie - Xhaka, Palacios - Adli, Hofmann (Wirtz 81'), Grimaldo (Kossounou 90') - Hlozek (Schick 74')
AS Roma: Svilar - Mancini, Ndicka, Angelino (Smalling 80') - El Shaarawy, Cristante, Paredes, Pellegrini (Abraham 80'), Spinazzola (Zalewski 21') - Azmoun (Bove 72'), Lukaku
Goals: 0-1 Paredes (43' pen), 0-2 Paredes (66' pen), 1-2 Mancini (83 o.g.), 2-2 Stanisic (90'+7)
Yellow cards: Tapsoba, Tah, Wirtz / Mancini, Paredes, Zalewski
Referee: Danny Makkelie (Netherlands)
Attendance: 30,210 (sellout) at the BayArena
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Bayer 04 can go through to the Round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League for the ninth time tonight, 24 February (kick-off: 21:00 CET) and be in the top 16 clubs in Europe. A good omen: Leverkusen have progressed to the next round after winning the first leg in 20 of their 22 knockout rounds in European competitions to date. For their part, Greek record champions Olympiacos rested several players for last weekend’s league fixture ahead of the play-off second leg at the BayArena and will now do everything in their power to turn the tide with their usual aggressive and high pressing. The discussions on Werkself radio are likely to be just as intense as the battle on the pitch, with commentator Florian Bechholz welcoming honorary captain Stefan Kießling and goalkeeper Mark Flekken. Today’s matchday news.
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