Bayer 04 Leverkusen GmbH vs. A.S. Roma: Lineups & Match Thread

While the Giallorossi are certainly down in their tie against Leverkusen, they are certainly not out. Roma have headed to Germany with their hopes of making it to the Europa League final on the line, and Daniele De Rossi has put forward a starting eleven that looks to seize the opportunity to rewrite the story of Leverkusen’s undefeated season.

Daniele De Rossi acknowledged leading into the match that sheer perfection from Roma would be required if I Lupi intended to make it to Dublin, saying:

“Bayer are a great team that has worked hard on certain concepts to get to where they are now. It’s a bit like the path that we would like to undertake. A goal could put us in difficulty, but we will try to take advantage of this given that we too need to attack and score goals, in the first leg we had our opportunities and it is not certain that we will have fewer chances in the return leg.”

“The first leg taught us 3 things: the first is that we cannot make mistakes, at 0-0 we were clearly in the game against a team that is considered among the strongest in the world. We must be perfect. Even if we were to go down we will have to be more solid, if we lose distance it becomes difficult to recover the ball. Solidity on the pitch makes the difference.”

As usual, DDR sums up the situation perfectly in an interview: Roma has the ability to win here, but it will require each and every player in the squad playing at their best. A rash red card or a mind-numbing defensive error, the likes of which didn’t sink Roma against prior opponents in the Europa League, will sink the Giallorossi here. Still, Roma has come from behind in European competition before; it may just happen again. Add in the fact that capitano futuro himself scored a brace at BayArena himself during his playing career and the comeback story practically writes itself:

Win or lose, we’ll keep on writing about this club; take some solace in that. As always, follow along with us here in the comments section and on the Website Formerly Known as Twitter™. FORZA ROMA!

Lineups

Leverkusen

Roma