Head coach Xabi Alonso made one change to the starting line-up for the second leg: Amine Adli made way for Florian Wirtz in attack - alongside Sardar Azmoun and Moussa Diaby. The back three was again made up of Edmond Tapsoba, Jonathan Tah and Piero Hincapie. Jeremie Frimpong and Mitchel Bakker were the wing-backs. Kerem Demirbay and Exequiel Palacios were in midfield.
On a deafening and breathtaking stage at the BayArena, the match started as expected with the visitors from Rome sitting deep in their own half allowing the Werkself to dominate the ball early on. The Leverkusen team had a first chance on goal after winning possession in their own half: Wirtz raced forward down the left towards the opposition goal and the 20-year-old laid the ball off to Diaby. The Frenchman mishit his shot and it went wide of the left upright (10’). Just two minutes later, the Werkself number 19 tried a shot from out the box and he hit the bar. The rest of the match was mainly played in front of the AS Roma goal.
The Werkself pressed the Italian team and allowed them little space and time to venture out of their own half. The visitors showed little interest in maintaining possession. That led to an increased number of opportunities for the Black and Reds – including a cross that Tapsoba just failed to connect with (17’). Demirbay with a long-range effort (21’) and a header from Diaby (23’) also failed to hit the target. Azmoun almost had the next chance with a header: The Iran international was picked out from the right by teammate Diaby but the AS Roma keeper Rui Patricio was able to beat him to the ball and clear the danger (30’). The hosts deserved to take the lead but that did not come in the first 45 with the two sides going into half-time with the score at 0-0.
The second half started with a repeat of the first with a defensive AS Roma team up against a lively Alonso side. The team from Rome played a smart game, again and again staying down after challenges and fouls to play for time. The proceedings were often interrupted and that served to disrupt the Werkself pattern of play. Diaby and Co. failed to create any chances in the opening minutes after the restart. The first good goalscoring opportunity fell to Azmoun on 67 minutes in a rebound from a long-range effort from Demirbay but once again the Roma keeper Patricio was able to make the save.
The Werkself refused to be downhearted, continued to fight for every ball and battled to the end. On 78 minutes, Tah had a shot from a central position but it was deflected. There was another big chance for Azmoun who failed to convert a rebound from a shot by substitute Adli (81’). The visitors showed little desire to play the game.
In the closing stages, Xabi Alonso rang the changes up front by bringing on Adli (76’), Adam Hlozek (80’) and Nadiem Amiri (86’). The match could hardly have been more one-sided with 23 shots to 1 - but the ball did not end up in the AS Roma goal. Referee Slavko Vincic blew for full-time after eight minutes of added time with the game ending goalless. The 1-0 win for AS Roma in the first leg meant the exit for Bayer 04 from the Europa League.
The run in is here: The final home game of the season at the BayArena is in three days time on Sunday 21 May (kick-off: 19.30 CEST). The Werkself entertain Borussia Mönchengladbach. That is followed a week later by the final fixture of the campaign: On Bundesliga matchday 34, Bayer 04 are away to VfL Bochum on Saturday 27 May. The match at the Vonovia Ruhrstadion and all other games in the league kick-off at the traditional time of 15.30 CEST.
Match stats:
Bayer 04: Hradecky – Tapsoba, Tah (Amiri 86’), Hincapie – Frimpong, Demirbay, Palacios (Hlozek 80’), Bakker (Adli 76’) – Wirtz – Azmoun, Diaby
AS Roma: Patricio – Mancini, Cristante, Ibanez – Celik (Smalling 78’), Spinazzola (Zalewski 34’) – Matic – Bove, Pellegrini – Abraham, Belotti (Wijnaldum 46’)
Booked: Hincapie, Palacios, Bakker, Diaby, Tapsoba, Alonso (coach) – Ibanez, Cristante, Abraham
Referee: Slavko Vincic (Slovenia)
Attendance: 30,210 (sell-out) at the BayArena
Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 player to have won both the UEFA Cup (1988) and the DFB Pokal (1993). And the Berliner stayed with the Werkself after ending his impressive playing career as he worked as a goalkeeping coach for the following nine years. Vollborn now works under the Bayer Cross as a fan liaison officer and club archivist. Since February 2021, the personalised Black and Red lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month.
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