Europe League
Alonso warns despite 2-0 in Rome: “We have everything to lose”
Leverkusen coach Xabi Alonso and his team won the semi-final first leg of the Europa League in Rome 2-0. photo
© Andrew Medichini/AP
Bayer Leverkusen has one foot in the Europa League final. The Werkself won 2-0 in Rome and are now unbeaten in 47 competitive games. But the trainer warns against false euphoria.
The confident 2-0 win in the atmospheric Stadio Olimpico is actually half the battle for Bayer Leverkusen in the final, but that’s exactly why they found the coach Xabi Alonso words of warning.
“It’s a good result, but it’s not over yet,” said the champion coach after the semi-final first leg at AS Roma: “There’s still one game in Leverkusen. They have nothing to lose, we have everything to lose . Sometimes it’s a difficult situation. I’ve seen a lot of comebacks. But we’re ready.”
Bayer was obviously like that in Rome too. In contrast to the 0-1 defeat in the first leg of last year’s semi-final, when both teams had already faced each other, the Leverkusen team showed “a very serious, mature performance”, not only in the eyes of their coach.
Alonso, the tactical fox
And once again Alonso’s tactical move had worked. Somewhat surprisingly, the coach didn’t call up a trained striker, but rather Florian Wirtz as the so-called false nine – the national player promptly made it 1-0 (28th). “We thought about something with the coach and it worked quite well,” said defense chief Jonathan Tah: “They probably expected something different.” Robert Andrich (73rd) scored the second goal for Bayer.
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 evening tonight,” said De Rossi: “And it’s just her year.”