Roma and Bayer Leverkusen will meet in the semi-finals of the UEFA Europa League for the second season in succession, after the Italian side progressed 1-0 on aggregate in last season’s final four before going on to lose in the final on penalties to Sevilla.

Bayer Leverkusen won their first ever meeting with Roma in the 2004-05 UEFA Champions League group stage (3-1 at home), but are winless in five games against I Giallorossi since (D3 L2).

The only previous time the same two teams have met in back-to-back UEFA Cup/Europa League semi-finals came in the 1984/85 – 1985/86 seasons, when Real Madrid reached the final of the competition at the expense of Internazionale in both campaigns.  

Roma have reached the semi-final stage of a major European competition for the fourth consecutive season, with Real Madrid the only other team to do so since the 2020-21 campaign; La Lupa had reached the final four in just four of their previous 37 campaigns in Europe (1969-70, 1983-84, 1990-91, 2017-18).

Bayer Leverkusen have reached the semi-final stage of a major European competition for the fifth time and for the first time in back-to-back seasons; the Germans reached the UEFA Cup and UEFA Champions League finals in 1987-88 and 2001-02 respectively, but were eliminated from this competition both last season and in 1994-95, both times by Italian opposition (Roma and Parma).

Roma have lost just one of their last 25 home games in the UEFA Europa League (W19 D5), winning 10 of the last 11 (D1); only Villarreal (35), Sevilla (28) and Sporting CP (25) have recorded more home wins in the competition than the Italians (24).

Bayer Leverkusen are unbeaten in all 10 of their UEFA Europa League games this season (W8 D2); the only previous teams to reach the final having remained unbeaten from the group stage onwards are Chelsea in 2018-19, Villarreal in 2020-21 and Eintracht Frankfurt in 2021-22, all of who would eventually lift the trophy.

Romelu Lukaku has scored seven goals in nine appearances against German opposition in major European competition – including one against Bayer Leverkusen in August 2020 – only netting more often against Swiss teams (8 goals); meanwhile, his only previous appearance in a UEFA Europa League semi-final saw him score twice for Internazionale against Shakhtar Donetsk in August 2020.  

No player has created more chances from open play than Bayer Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz in the UEFA Europa League this season (24); the 20-year-old – who turns 21 after the day of this game - has scored 11 goals in the competition, more than any other player under the age of 21 since the competition’s rebrand in 2009-10.