The second leg of the Europa League semi-final kicks off in the early hours of this morning, with Roma travelling to challenge new Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen.
With Roma losing 2-0 at home in the first leg, they must beat Bayer Leverkusen by more than two goals away to progress to the final.
In order to cope with the game, Roma boss De Rossi abandoned the back four he had been using and switched to the usual 3-5-2 of former boss Jose Mourinho. With Dybala missing the game due to injury, De Rossi played the twin tower combination of Romelu Lukaku and Azmoun up front, with Spinazzola, Manuel Pellegrini, Paredes, Cristante and El Shaarawy in midfield, Angelino, Ndicka and Roberto Mancini in the back three, and Svillar in goal.
From the start of the game, the Roma players played with the momentum of the Red Wolves, attacking Bayer Leverkusen's half, and the Pharma players were also a little flustered against the red-eyed Roma players, who awarded Roma penalties in both halves.
In the 42nd minute, Azmoun was brought down in the opponent's penalty area, the referee awarded a penalty, and Argentine midfielder Paredes hit the penalty, Roma led 1-0, and the score was 1-2.
In the 62nd minute, Bayer Leverkusen's Hrozhek was fouled for handball while defending in the penalty area, and the referee gave Roma another penalty, and Paredes scored twice from the penalty to help Roma equalize 2-2. The away fans were very excited at this time as they seemed to see Roma's hopes of progressing to the Europa League final.
But in the 82nd minute of the game, the situation on the field changed dramatically, Bayer Leverkusen took a corner kick on the right, goalkeeper Svillar jumped high but did not get the ball, and the little Mancini behind him was completely deceived by his goalkeeper's "feint", a accidentally touched the ball falling from the sky to his own net, the total composition became 2-3, Roma returned to the edge of the cliff again.
In the 97th minute, as Bayer Leverkusen substitute Stanisic burst into the penalty area with the ball and cut inside to score, Roma fell behind 2-4 on aggregate and was powerless.
After the game, Roma's dreams of qualifying for next season's Champions League by winning the Europa League were completely dashed. To add insult to injury, in the Serie A standings, Atalanta have a game less to play, although they have 60 points with Roma, they still beat the latter on goal difference and occupy the fifth place.
It is worth mentioning that Roma will travel to Atalanta in the next round of the league and if they win, they could return to fifth place in the table, but with the recent excellent form of the true blue and black, it is unlikely that Roma will win on the road.
However, even if Roma finish sixth in the table, they still have a glimmer of hope of qualifying for next season's Champions League by counting on Atalanta to beat Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League final. With Serie A already qualified for next season's Champions League, Atalanta could extend their fifth place to Roma if they win the Europa League.
Finally, we must also note that although De Rossi has led Roma to a series of good results so far, he has only reached the semi-finals of the Europa League and is currently sixth in the league.
Looking back at Jose Mourinho's first two seasons in charge of Roma, they won the Europa League in their first season and reached the Europa League final in their second, despite finishing sixth in the league.
Therefore, it is time for the myth of the Roma teenager to come to an end, and it is certain that De Rossi still has a long way to go before he can surpass Mourinho.