Foot & Soccer Soccer Match Reports, Football News
In the first leg of their clash in the semifinals of the Europa League, played on Thursday at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Bayer Leverkusen continued their incredible season by beating AS Roma, courtesy of goals from Florian Wirtz in the 28th minute and Robert Andrich in the 73rd.
The game
The newly crowned German champions needed no more than their 47% of possession to earn this vital victory, with the fact that they took a total of 19 shots compared to Roma’s eight telling a lot more about the way the contest developed. The game was anticipated as a clash between two young, promising coaches, and everything about it showed that Xabi Alonso is some way ahead of Daniele De Rossi at this point of their respective careers.
Throughout the match, Roma struggled to get the ball far up the pitch through passing as the visitors applied a perfect combination of pressing high, defending from the front line on the halfway line, and dropping deep when needed. Also, Leverkusen’s offensive transition game was quite impressive, making full use of the stunning pace of Jeremie Frimpong on the right and Alejandro Grimaldo on the left.
The teams were deployed in different formations. Alonso used his standard 3-4-2-1 shape, with the back line consisting of Piero Hincapie, Jonathan Tah and Edmond Tapsoba. Andrich was joined by Granit Xhaka in the middle of the park, forming a partnership bursting with experience and fighting spirit, flanked by Grimaldo and Josip Stanisic as the wing-backs. Further up, Wirtz and Frimpong played closest to Amine Adli, picked ahead of Victor Boniface and Patrik Schick, both of whom remained on the bench for the entire match.
Meanwhile, De Rossi’s men were arranged in a 4-3-2-1. He chose Chris Smalling and Gianluca Mancini as the centre-back pair, flanked by Rick Karsdorp on the right and Leonardo Spinazzola on the left. Much like Alonso, he chose a steely midfield partnership of Bryan Cristante and Leandro Paredes, with…
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Author : Veselin Trajkovic
Publish date : 2024-05-03 10:32:46
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