Bayer Leverkusen's dream of winning the Europa League has been shattered by José Mourinho's Roman defensive bulwark. In the second leg of the semi-finals, the Bundesliga club ran passionately and courageously, but also unsuccessfully, and were eliminated by a 0-0 draw against AS Roma. Leverkusen had lost 0-1 in the first leg the previous week.

On the 35th anniversary of the club's greatest success in the UEFA Cup, Bayer missed out on a third European Cup final after 1988 and 2002. In addition, the Bundesliga will not be represented in any of the finals this year, Bayer was the last German club in one of the international competitions. And now he has to hope to at least qualify for Europe in the new season via the league. The current seventh place two matchdays before the end of the season would only be enough for the Conference League. And only if RB Leipzig wins the cup final against Eintracht Frankfurt.

Mourinho, on the other hand, prevailed in the coaching duel against his former player Xabi Alonso and can become the sole record holder in terms of European Cup victories in the final on May 31 in Budapest. So far, he leads the rankings with five titles in the various competitions together with former Bayern coach Giovanni Trapattoni.

Dedicated team

Leverkusen's captain and goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky had announced before the game a "bigger cauldron" than in the previous week in Rome. And the Bayer fans went to great lengths to support this daring thesis. Several thousand people welcomed the team bus at 19:20 p.m. at the entrance to the stadium in red shirts and with numerous Bengalos.

Before the game there was a big choreo. And during the game, the fans almost sang through and actually created an impressive atmosphere worthy of the semi-finals.

Mourinho's composure

And the team was eager to score the hoped-for early goal. The first attempts by Kerem Demirbay (8th) and Moussa Diaby (9th) were still rather harmless, but then Diaby hit the crossbar from an acute angle after a nice pass from Florian Wirtz (12th). On the sidelines, Alonso lived through the game intensively, he ran up and down, conducted wildly and loudly. On the other hand, Mourinho demonstratively exuded composure a few meters further to the left, usually with his hands in his pockets, he moved only a few meters to the left and right.

At half-time, 12-1 shots on goal and 74 percent possession were statistical witnesses to Leverkusen's dominance. But apart from Diaby's crossbar, most of the scoring chances were shots from distance, which sometimes exuded a little more and sometimes less danger. The biggest excitement came in the 37th minute when Roma defender Bryan Cristante was the last man to pull Sardar Azmoun by the arm. All Leverkusen players demanded a red card, but referee Slavko Vincic from Slovenia allowed play to continue.

Immediately after the break, the Bayer fans put on a pyro show due to the smoke and caused the game to be interrupted for almost two minutes. Mourinho, meanwhile, had changed defensively again at half-time. Above all, however, the guests were more and more successful in interrupting the flow of the game with small nicks. And the Leverkusen team became more and more hectic in view of the running out of time. Azmoun (81') missed another great chance.