What to look out for in the Europa League semifinal second legs
Leverkusen are in pole position against Roma but guarding against complacency, while it is all to play for in Bergamo where Atalanta host Marseille.
Can anyone halt the Leverkusen juggernaut? Themselves, perhaps, or Roma’s attacking strength. Atalanta and Marseille are blessed with that too, primarily in the shape of two in-form strikers determined to make a difference.
Leverkusen unstoppable
“This is Leverkusen’s year,” Roma coach Daniele De Rossi conceded after the new German champions’ 2-0 first-leg win in Italy. “They won the Bundesliga; they don’t just have quality, but also a great deal of physicality and stamina.” How do you stop a juggernaut? You don’t; you hope it stops itself. Yet after a couple of weekends when their unbeaten record came under serious threat since clinching their maiden German title, Xabi Alonso’s charges are back doing what they do best.
In a season of firsts, Leverkusen recorded their first win in ten matches against Italian teams (D2 L7) in Rome and a first Uefa Europa League final appearance beckons (though they did win the Uefa Cup in 1988). “We don’t want to stop,” said Alonso. “We want to go on like this until the end of the season.” Lothar Matthäus extended De Rossi’s sentiment when he labelled Leverkusen “champions ready ” and it is hard to disagree.
De Rossi demands perfection
Roma have struggled in front of goal in recent weeks, scoring just 11 in their past 11 matches. Not for want of trying, and the first leg may have been very different had Romelu Lukaku hit the net rather than the crossbar when it was still goalless. Yet with the likes of Lukaku, Paulo Dybala, Tammy Abraham and Lorenzo Pellegrini in their ranks, the Giallorossi are not short of attacking threats. They just need something to click.
“It will be some feat, going and winning 2-0 in the stadium of a team that have not lost this season,” said De Rossi. “We will have to go and attack more, giving a performance similar to what we did in the first half [in Rome]. We tried to press high, but we had to be perfect. We had chances.” In Leverkusen, they have to take them.
Atalanta striking hot
“EURO Scamacca” was the headline in La Gazzetta dello Sport the morning after the first legs. Gianluca Scamacca has hit a rich vein of form at the right time, with Atalanta battling Roma for fifth spot in Serie A (and a Champions League place) and one game away from a first European final. The 25-year-old is also forcing himself into the reckoning for Uefa EURO 2024.
“It was a great goal, good movement and the pass with the right timing,” said coach Gian Piero Gasperini of Scamacca’s opener in the 1-1 first-leg draw with Marseille that made it six in as many games for the striker. “It will be fundamental to create more situations like that in Bergamo, because we only really threatened them again late on.”
Aubameyang bubbling under
Marseille of course have a dangerous front man of their own in the shape of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who is closing in on 30 goals for 2023/24. The Gabon striker went close several times in the first instalment, and could thrive if given extra space with Atalanta pushing at home. And when he scores one in this competition, another isn’t usually too far away.
“I am not completely satisfied because we had two or three chances to win the match 2-1; then we would have been satisfied,” Marseille coach Jean-Louis Gasset said after the first leg. “But it is only halftime in the tie and we are going to go and give everything in Italy. We saw that we could be a danger to them.”
