ROME: An imposing stadium in a major foreign capital did nothing to stop Bayer Leverkusen’s record unbeaten march across Europe.

The freshly crowned first-time Bundesliga champions silenced the Stadio Olimpico with a 2-0 win at Roma in the first leg of the Europa League semifinals on Thursday to extend their unbeaten streak to 47 matches across all competitions.

No club from Europe’s five biggest leagues — in Germany, England, Italy, Spain and France — has had a longer unbeaten streak.

“We take things game by game and we are not thinking about being unbeaten,” Leverkusen midfielder Amine Adli said. “We are not thinking about making history or things like that — that’s why we are playing like this and the team is strong. We just want to enjoy ourselves.”

The result also marked a measure of revenge for Leverkusen — since Roma had beaten the German club in this exact same stage last season for their last defeat in Europe.

“We know it is not easy to play here,” Adli said. “We played a very serious game.”

Leverkusen’s last loss across all competitions was a 3-0 defeat to Bochum in the final round of last season’s Bundesliga nearly a year ago — on May 27, 2023.

Roma were dangerous with an early header off the crossbar from Romelu Lukaku. But then Leverkusen scored on the counterattack seven minutes later.

A failed back pass from Roma right back Rick Karsdorp under pressure from Alex Grimaldo on the left flank resulted in a 3-on-1 for Leverkusen. Grimaldo then passed to Florian Wirtz, who calmly slotted in from the center of the area.

Midfielder Robert Andrich added another goal for Leverkusen in the 73rd with a long-range shot — just as Roma had been threatening on the other end.

In the other semifinal, Atalanta drew 1-1 at Marseille.

The second legs will be held next Thursday, with the final to be held in Dublin on May 22.

Leverkusen has won only one European trophy: the 1988 UEFA Cup, which was then predecessor to the Europa League. Its only other European final came in the 2002 Champions League, won by Real Madrid.

Roma are aiming to qualify for their third consecutive European final after winning the Europa Conference League in 2022 and losing last year’s Europa League final to Sevilla in a penalty shootout.

Daniele De Rossi replaced Jose Mourinho as Roma’s coach in January.

The Giallorossi hadn’t lost a European knockout stage game at home in seven years — since getting beat 1-0 by Villarreal in the 2017 Europa League.

Roma fans’ pre-match choreography across one entire end of the stadium spelled out the word “AVANZIAMO” (“Let’s advance”). But Roma now face an uphill challenge to eliminate Leverkusen, who haven’t lost all season.

Marseille-Atalanta

Marseille’s players were treated to an ovation at Stade Velodrome from their hard-to-please fans after the draw with Atalanta — who eliminated Liverpool in the quarterfinals.

Atalanta took the lead in the 11th when striker Gianluca Scamacca hit a low shot into the bottom corner after reading Teun Koopmeiners’ clever pass.

But Marseille equalized in the 20th when central defender Chancel Mbemba collected Geoffrey Kondogbia’s pass and his fine curling shot from the edge of the penalty area hit the left post and rolled in.

The second half was almost entirely one-way traffic as Marseille pushed forward. Winger Ismaïla Sarr had a goal disallowed for an offside following a video review and substitute Azzedine Ounahi hit the crossbar with a curling shot in the 73rd.

Europa Conference League

In the third-tier competition semifinal first legs, Aston Villa’s hopes of reaching a first European final since 1982 were diminished with a 4-2 home loss to Olympiakos, the first defeat at Villa Park in the European campaign for the last English club in European competitions.

Villa came back from 2-0 down but were not able to answer Ayoub El Kaabi’s third goal of the game. The striker converted from the penalty spot to make it 3-2 for his eighth goal in the competition this season. Santiago Hezze finished the scoring before Douglas Luiz wasted a penalty for Villa.

Olympiakos are aiming to play on home soil in the May 29 final in Athens.

Earlier, El Kaabi scored twice within a half hour put the visitors in charge.

In Florence, substitute M’Bala Nzola netted in stoppage time for last-year’s runner-up Fiorentina to secure a 3-2 victory over 10-man Club Brugge.

Brugge’s Raphael Onyedika was sent off after receiving his second yellow card on the hour when the Italian club was 2-1 up but the visitors equalized through Igor Thiago to complete a counter just minutes later.

Riccardo Sottil put Fiorentina ahead early on, Brugge captain Hans Vanaken answered with an equalizer from the penalty spot and then Andrea Belotti restored the lead for Fiorentina on a rebound.
 

MANCHESTER, England: Germany has beaten the English Premier League to a bonus fifth Champions League place in next season’s revamped and expanded competition.
Borussia Dortmund’s 1-0 win over Paris Saint-Germain in their semifinal first leg on Wednesday confirmed Germany would join Italy in being granted an extra berth.
It had largely been assumed England would secure a bonus spot, given its recent success in Europe, including having Champions League winners in three of the last five seasons.
But Dortmund’s win means Germany can’t be caught in UEFA’s ranking system by England, which has only Aston Villa still playing.
The fifth spots were based on performances from each country this season in the Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League.
It means three-time European Cup winner Manchester United will miss out on next season’s Champions League.
Villa and Tottenham — competing for fourth place in the Premier League — also know there will be no back door entry to the biggest stage in Europe.
Villa, England’s only remaining team in Europe, have advanced to the semifinals of the Conference League. But even if Villa go on to win the third-tier competition, they cannot amass enough points for England to overtake Germany, which still has two teams in the Champions League and one in the Europa League.
UEFA’s ranking system gives points for each game a team wins or draws in European competition, with bonuses attached to advancing to different stages.
Since 2005, England would have qualified for a fifth place in the Champions League in 14 of 19 seasons. And despite having finalists in five of the past six editions, English teams’ disappointing performances this season have wrecked their chances of an extra place.
Man United and Newcastle failed to advance from the group stage, and Manchester City’s quarterfinal loss to Real Madrid was the defending champion’s earliest exit from the competition in four years.
In the Europa League, Liverpool were surprisingly eliminated by Atalanta in the quarterfinals.
In contrast, German teams have excelled. Bayern Munich and Dortmund have reached the semifinals of the Champions League and Bayer Leverkusen is into the last four of the Europa League.
Dortmund, fifth in the Bundesliga, guaranteed a place in next season’s Champions League by beating PSG.
Roma are currently fifth in Italy.
The Champions League is expanding from 32 to 36 teams next season to allow for a new league phase that will replace the existing group stage.
Via a seeding system, teams will be drawn to play against eight opponents, home and away in one league format.
The top eight teams will advance to the round of 16. Teams that finish from ninth to 24th will face a two-leg playoff in order to advance.