the grand finale of Europa League was set this Thursday. In one of the semifinals, Sevilla e Juventus they faced each other at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium, in Seville (ESP), and, with goals from Suso and Lamela, already in overtime, the Spaniards won 2-1. Vlahovic scored the Italian goal.
Thus, as the teams drew 1-1 in the first leg, the hosts added 3-2 on the aggregate score and guaranteed advancement to the continental decision. The team coached by José Luis Mendilibar, then, is still alive in search of a seventh championship – it is the biggest winner of the tournament (2005/06, 2006/07, 2013/14, 2014/15, 2015/16 and 2019/20).
Now, Sevilla decides the competition with Roma, who qualified by drawing without goals with Bayer Leverkusen, in Germany, and, in that way, held the 1-0 on aggregate. The final, therefore, is scheduled for May 31 (Wednesday), starting at 4 pm (Brasília time), at the Puskás Arena, in Budapest, Hungary. As it is a single game, the winner takes the competition cup. In case of a tie, the match goes to extra time and, if the equality persists, to the maximum penalties.
The duel between Sevilla and Juventus
The first big chance of the match happened for Juventus, in the 14th minute. After a corner kick, defender Federico Gatti headed hard towards the goal, but Bono made a great save. Sevilla’s response came in the 23rd minute, also with a header from Ocampos, who forced Szczesny to save practically on top of the line and send it to a corner.
Three minutes later, on the counterattack, Di María received a beautiful pass from Rabiot and came face to face with Bono. However, the Argentine tried to cover up the Moroccan goalkeeper and ended up kicking it out, missing a great opportunity. At 32 minutes, Moise Kean received it on the right and kicked it low, hitting the post before going out through the bottom line.
Even before the end of the first half, Juventus managed to open the scoring. Locatelli received on the right, on the bottom line, and crossed low behind, finding Rabiot. The French midfielder arrived free to hit first and score. However, the assistant signaled offside at the start of the play.
Goals only in the final stage and a tie took the match to extra time
On the way back from the break, Juventus were in danger until they finally managed to open the scoring at Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán. In the 19th minute, striker Vlahovic, who had just come on, received from Rabiot, beat Gudelj and Badé and dug in with style when Bono left to score.
Sevilla equalized seven minutes later. After pressing, Acuña stole the ball in the offensive field and it stayed with Lamela, who activated Suso. The Spanish midfielder cleared the scoring and hit from afar to score a great goal and leave everything the same in the match. After equality, the hosts continued to attack in search of victory and scared again with Suso, in the 37th minute, and with En-Nesyri – who forced another great defense by Szczesny -, in the 44th minute.
With the aggregate score tied at 2-2 at the end of regulation time, the match went into overtime. In the extra stage, the hosts needed four minutes to turn the game around. Bryan Gil received it on the left end and crossed it in the head of Erick Lamela, who tested hard to make it 2-1.
Finally, nine minutes into the second period of extra time, Acuña took a long time to charge the lateral kick and received the second yellow card, being expelled from the field and leaving Sevilla with ten. Thus, he is absent from the Spanish team for the final against Roma.
Roma hold Bayer Leverkusen to reach final
In the other semifinal, Roma visited Bayer Leverkusen, at the BayArena, in Leverkusen (ALE), and tied without goals. With that, as he won the first game, in Italy, by 1 to 0, he guaranteed the qualification for the decision.
The team from the Italian capital, current champion of the Conference League, is looking for the first Europa League title in its history – it was runner-up to Internazionale in 1990-91.
Source: Gazetaesportiva
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