Sevilla beat Fenerbahce 2-0 this Thursday, in the first leg of the round of 16 of the Europa Leagueand took an important step towards the next phase of the continental tournament.
The goals of Joan Jordán (56′) and Erik Lamela (85′) gave the team an important victory to travel to Turkey next week.
“The opponent is very good. We have to try to be an aggressive team there (Turkey) and try to guarantee that Fenerbahce don’t bother us”, warned the coach of Sevilla, Jorge Sampaoli, about the situation of the confrontation.
Fenerbahce started the match better, annulling Sevilla in the first half, who want to forget the bad moment in the Spanish Championship in the Europa League.
The Turks almost opened the scoring with Ferdi Kadioglu, who invaded the area and hit the goal, but stopped in the defense of Marko Dmitrovic (8′), one of the heroes of the Spanish team, who appeared in the most complicated moments.
Dmitrovic saved Sevilla in a one-on-one with Joshua King, who appeared free after receiving a beautiful pass between the lines (28′).
The home team was unable to take control of the game in the first half, taking danger only in dead ball plays. In the Spaniards’ best chance before the break, Ivan Rakitic almost stunned goalkeeper Altay Bayindir with a free kick (23′).
But in the second half, Sevilla came back transformed, much more organized, intense and building good combinations.
And the goal didn’t take long, with Jordán hitting hard to overcome Bayindir and make it 1-0 (56′).
With an advantage on the scoreboard, the Spanish team continued to press and Fenerbahce went from dominating to being dominated.
The Turkish team adopted a more defensive posture to hold the result, relying on the ‘field factor’ in the return game and held out until the final minutes, but ended up conceding the second goal:
Lamela received a good pass from Rakitic and swelled the net with a shot from close range (85′).
Source: Gazetaesportiva
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