A Roman makes Roma dream: With his winning goal against Bayer Leverkusen (1-0) in the semi-final first leg of the Europa League, Edoardo Bove made the Stadio Olimpico tremble – and gave AS Roma a comfortable starting position for the second leg next Thursday in the BayArena.
“It was great,” said the 20-year-old homegrown player after the final whistle on RTL with a big grin, “I threw everything in.”
In his eighth Europa League game it was Bove’s first goal, previously the central midfielder had “only” scored twice in Serie A in his young career.
“We did a good job,” said the youngster, who, after the break, worked with center forward Tammy Abraham to get the Römer breast releaser: “In the second half we played aggressively and had more power and intensity.”
AS Roma have ‘a positive energy’
His 63rd-minute goal has widened the door to a second international final in a row for Roma – last year’s celebrity coach Jose Mourinho’s side triumphed in the newly introduced Conference League.
At the same time, the Italy U21 international dashed Leverkusen’s hopes of their first European final in 21 years. What’s special: Bove wasn’t even born in Bayer’s last final against Real Madrid (1-2) in the Champions League. The Italian saw the light of day one day later, on May 16, 2002.
Now, next week, two days after his 21st birthday, he wants to spoil the game again in the “tough” second leg. “We have positive energy,” said Bove, “and we’re trying to win the second game as well.”