Books – Ahmed Harbi
Thursday, May 18, 2023 12:00 PM
Italian clubs remain in front of a difficult task to resolve the qualification to the European League final, this evening, Thursday, as the Juventus team challenges its Spanish host, Seville, in an exciting football match, and the Italian Roma lures its German counterpart, Bayer Leverkusen, in a strong confrontation in the semi-final second leg.
Juventus faces Seville
The Spanish team, Seville, will host its Italian counterpart, Juventus, in a heavy-caliber confrontation at 10:00 pm today, Thursday, at Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium, in the first leg of the semi-final first leg of the European Championship for the 2023 edition.
The Juventus teams drew 1-1 against Seville in the first leg match that was held last Thursday at Allianz Stadium.
Juventus hopes to achieve a positive result by winning or drawing with any result in the second leg in Spain to ensure advancing to the final round for the first time in the new version with its new name, as it had won the title 3 times in its history under the name of the European Union Cup.
While the Spanish team is armed with the stadium and the audience to win any result to ensure that it reaches the final in its favorite tournament, being the most title-winning 6 times.
Juventus and Seville faced each other on four previous occasions in Europe, all of which were in the Champions League between 2015-2016 and 2016-2017, where Juventus won two of the four confrontations, drew in a confrontation, and lost the same, while it was not defeated at home, where it won a match and drew the same.
While Sevilla have won each of their last six matches against Italian clubs in the Europa League, with each victory coming during the knockout stages, the last of these matches saw them defeat Inter Milan in the final in the 2019-20 season.
Sevilla have reached the semi-finals of the Europa League more times than any other team, 5 times, and they have lifted the trophy on every previous occasion when they reached the round.
Roma vs Bayer Leverkusen
The Italian team, Roma, will be a heavy guest on its counterpart, the German team, Bayer Leverkusen, at ten in the evening, also at the Bay Arena, in the framework of the second leg of the European League semi-finals.
The Italian club, Roma, achieved a valuable victory over its guest, the German team, Bayer Leverkusen, with a clean goal, in the match that brought the two teams together last Thursday, at the “Olympico” stadium, in the first leg of the European League semi-finals.
Roma seeks to tie or win any result to guarantee the snatch of the ticket to the final of the continental championship in the second leg of the team’s stronghold in Germany.
While Bayer Leverkusen will try to arm itself with its stadium and the center of its fans to compensate for its loss with a goal and win more than one goal to snatch the ticket to the final in the stronghold of the German team and qualify for the European final.
Roma and Bayer Leverkusen have faced each other on four previous occasions in Europe, with each team achieving one win and two draws as both teams scored at least once per game, with a total of 19 goals, an average of 4.8 per game.
Bayer Leverkusen reached the semi-finals of a major European competition for the fourth time, after the 1987-88 UEFA Cup (champion), the 1994-95 UEFA Cup (elimination) and the 2001-02 UEFA Champions League (runners-up).
Roma have also reached a major European semi-final for the third consecutive season – they were eliminated by Manchester United at this stage of this competition in 2020-21, while they beat Leicester City at this stage of last season’s Europa League on their way to lifting the trophy.
Including the finals, Roma have qualified in 10 of their last 11 European knockout matches, including their last seven consecutive matches.
Bayer Leverkusen coach Xabi Alonso trained under Roma coach Jose Mourinho for three seasons at Real Madrid between 2010-11 and 2012-13, where he played 151 matches and the team won them in 108 matches (72%). Alonso played 12,548 minutes under Mourinho at Real Madrid.
Roma qualified for the semi-finals of the tournament, after defeating its Dutch counterpart, Feyenoord Rotterdam, by five goals to two.
