Italian media praised Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen after their 2-0 win at Roma in the first leg of their Europa League semi-final tie on Thursday evening.
The Corriere della Sera newspaper called Leverkusen, who are unbeaten in 47 games, "the perfect machine."
"If you give the unbeatable a goal when the game is on the borderline (...) the unbeatable become even more unbeatable," it wrote.
The Repubblica saw Roma in a "valley of death" after a "dark night between mistakes and gifts. A miracle will be needed in Leverkusen." There is a simple recipe for this: "Score two goals at the BayArena hell without conceding one and then hope that things go your way."
The Gazzetta dello Sport, meanwhile, wrote: "A miracle will be needed now. Or something similar. Bayer Leverkusen proved to be unbeatable, at least for the time being. Roma held their own for a while (...), but then the difference in quality became clear in every corner of the pitch."
Bayer Leverkusen's pursuit of a treble was hugely boosted by Germany duo Florian Wirtz and Robert Andrich, who scored either side of the break to help the recently crowned Bundesliga champions extend their remarkable unbeaten run this season to 47 games in all competitions - a record in the big five leagues.
