Bayer Leverkusen visits AS Roma in the Europa League Thursday with hopes of starting another unbeaten run after being taken down by FC Cologne in the last Bundesliga round.
Bookmaker 10bet is offering odds at 2.25 for over 2.5 goals in the contest. The odds for the under are at 1.60. Meanwhile, the odds for both teams to score are at 1.95 and for both not to score at 1.83.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: May 10th, 4:30 P.M. (EST)
Leverkusen went 14 straight matches without a defeat across all competitions before being shocked by Cologne at home last Friday. Following a string of strong defensive performances, the team gave up two first-half goals and lacked the attacking quality to match Cologne’s scoring.
Xabi Alonso will have now had plenty of time to work with the team to try and produce a big bounce-back performance in a tough fixture in Rome against his former manager Jose Mourinho.
Roma should definitely have the edge on the bench, although Alonso has managed to overcome a rough start at Leverkusen and his reputation as a manager is growing in a hurry.
The former midfield maestro has lost eight games with Leverkusen and three of the defeats happened during his first six games in charge. A 4-0 debut triumph over Schalke was followed by a six-game run without a win, but it’s safe to say that Leverkusen has been one of the hottest teams in Europe since the World Cup break.
Roma enjoyed a decent post-World Cup run as well but the mood has soured around the place in recent weeks. The team is without a win in four straight games and couldn’t even get a goal over the weekend against Inter Milan.
Mourinho is in the headlines for all the wrong reasons again, having called Daniele Chiffi the worst referee he has ever met, and the preparations for the big European semi-final have clearly been far from ideal for the Giallorossi.
The two teams meet up for a fifth time in European competition. They have previously been paired together in the Champions League group stage a couple of times and the head-to-head results are as even as they can be – both teams have won once and two meetings have ended in a draw. The last draw was an incredible 4-4 game in Germany in 2015. It would be great if he could get a similar entertaining battle between the two this time around as well, but Mourinho’s conservative approach likely won’t let that happen.
