José Mourinho’s Roma will face off against Leicester City for a place in the Europa Conference League final, after the Italians finally saw off the challenge of Bodo/Glimt and Ricardo Pereira put the Foxes into their first-ever European semi-final.
Mourinho’s Roma hammered their Norwegian nemeses 4-0 at the Stadio Olimpico to book their place in the final four, but Leicester’s victory was more dramatic as a late turnaround in the Netherlands against PSV ended with Ricardo’s historic winner.
Both ties were nicely poised heading into the second leg, with Roma trailing Norway’s Bodo/Glimt 2-1 after the first meeting in Scandinavia. The sides were paired together in the group phase earlier this season, where Bodo inflicted an embarrassing 6-1 defeat on the Giallorossi before earning a 1-1 draw in the Italian capital.
Having suffered another frustrating result in the third clash last week amid controversy due to physical altercation between Bodo manager Kjetil Knutsen and Roma goalkeeping coach Nuno Santos, Mourinho remained confident. “We have the second leg to play at the Olimpico in front of our fans and I have no problem saying right now that I feel we are the favourites to reach the semi-final,” Mourinho said last week.
The home crowd in the Italian capital provided the type of atmosphere to which Mourinho has become accustomed, with hundreds of flags waving pre-match as the supporters made their voices heard. On the pitch Roma responded with goals, scoring three times inside half an hour through Tammy Abraham and Nicolo Zaniolo’s brace to put them 4-2 up on aggregate at half time.
Zaniolo completed his hat-trick just minutes after the re-start to essentially kill the tie, as Mourinho made history by becoming the manager who has reached the most European semi-finals with 11 appearances. Mourinho is closely followed on the list by Alex Ferguson and Jupp Heynckes who both reached a final four 10 times.
“Being in the semi-final is the most important thing, but the way we played from the first minute with high press, intensity, quality playing out from the back, we all felt the game was ours even at 2-0,” Mourinho told Sky Sport Italia.
“Even after the first leg when we lost 2-1, I always had the sensation we were superior. We are a stronger team, it is frankly unacceptable we only managed to beat this side at the fourth attempt, but it was the most important. It was 2-1 for them, it ended 5-2 for us.”
Ricardo the hero on historic Leicester night
Roma’s opponents in the semis will be Leicester City, who qualified for a European semi-final for the first time in their history thanks to a winner from Ricardo Pereira. The English side overcame PSV Eindhoven 2-1 in the Netherlands with a stunning late comeback to book their place in the last four, marking a memorable achievement for Brendan Rodgers’ side.
The first leg ended in a 1-1 draw in England, but for much of the return meeting the home crowd looked like cheering their side onto victory as PSV led for most of the game through Eran Zahavi’s 27th-minute strike. Leicester needed a goal to level the aggregate score and potentially take the game to extra time, and James Maddison produced it on 77 minutes with a crisp finish.
With PSV looking nervy in the closing minutes the visitors seized their chance to press for a winner and it arrived with less than three minutes remaining. Ricardo Pereira, who started the game at right-back, found himself on-hand to sweep in a rebound after Ademola Lookman’s effort was saved, giving the Portuguese his first-ever goal in Europe an hero status for his team.
You want both, you’ll get both! 😎
— Leicester City (@LCFC) April 14, 2022
Up first, our #UECL matchwinner, @ricbpereira 🤳 https://t.co/dMwoZfK6d1 pic.twitter.com/7pdq3W0ML5
By Sean Gillen
