OH Leuven Women held Roma to a goalless draw in the first League Stage match of the Women's Champions League on Tuesday evening at the Hemeltali Sportstadion. The visitors came in as favourites after a 7-1 victory over Sassuolo three days earlier, but the game settled into something far tighter than anyone expected. To be fair, both sides had chances — Roma especially — but neither could find the net.
And here's the thing about the opening half: Leuven took the lead at twenty-six minutes, a moment that changed how the game played out. Roma pushed back hard after that, but the hosts defended with a compact shape that kept the visitors at arm's length. The half ended level, and the teams went into the break knowing nothing would come easy.
By then the substitutions started coming through. Roma brought on Alice Corelli and Elisabetta Oliviero on the hour mark, looking for fresh legs in attack. Leuven responded with Kayleigh Van Dooren at sixty-one minutes, and the pattern continued — both coaches trying to shift momentum without exposing themselves. Giada Greggi picked up a yellow card for Roma at forty-seven minutes, and Martina Piemonte followed at seventy, a sign of how tightly contested the midfield became.
The late drama arrived when VAR awarded Roma a penalty at ninety minutes and four seconds. Ella Ottey stepped up, but Marta Pandini missed from the spot at ninety-five minutes — a cruel twist after ninety minutes of work. Things came to a head for the visitors at the death, and the goal that should have decided the match never materialised.
The statistics tell the story of a game where chances went begging. Roma registered ten shots on target compared to Leuven's six, and held fifty-two percent possession. But shots accuracy tells you something — Roma hit only thirty-one percent of their attempts on target, while Leuven managed fifty percent. Six goalkeeper saves for Roma, five for their counterpart — both keepers had their moments, but neither was asked to produce anything heroic.
We had given Roma a win at sixty percent confidence before kick-off, and the match played out differently from what we expected. It wasn't a tactical masterclass from either side — more a question of who could handle the pressure when it mattered. The draw leaves both teams with a point each, and for Roma, a reminder that away days in Europe rarely go to plan.
