Mourinho praises Roma's 'desire' in narrow win over Leverkusen

Jose Mourinho put Roma's narrow 1-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen was down to desire and the mentality as the Italians gained the upper hand in their Europa League semi-final.

Edoardo Bove fired Roma to victory in the 63rd minute at the Stadio Olimpico, allowing Mourinho's side to take a slender lead into next week's second leg in Germany.

The win gives Mourinho the chance to reach his second European final in as many years as Roma coach after winning the Europa Conference League last season.

"It's all down to the boys tonight who played with desire and the right mentality," Mourinho told Sky Sport.

"I have put in a lot of miles over the course of my career but even I really felt the support of the fans tonight and the boys responded with the desire to make them happy."

Roma took the win despite having a host of players either out or barely fit to play, with stars Paulo Dybala and Georginio Wijnaldum only coming on in the final 15 minutes to help out an exhausted, largely second-string team.

"Roma were a bit more dangerous in the second half, but we had the feeling that we could beat them in their own backyard," said Leverkusen goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky.

"It's not the best result for us but it could have been worse."

Federico Gatti scored with a header seven minutes into added time to earn Juventus a 1-1 home draw against Sevilla in their Europa League semi-final first leg.

Europa League kings Sevilla ignored the heavy rain and the pressure of the Italian crowd at a packed Allianz Stadium to dominate the game and looked well on course continue their bid for a record-extending seventh title before Gatti's last-gasp effort left the tie evenly poised.

Sevilla started strongly and Juve goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny made a