Krasnodar (Russia) (AFP)
With a providential goal from Munir El-Haddadi, Sevilla FC qualified for the knockout stages of the Champions League by winning in extremis 2-1 in Krasnodar on Tuesday, taking advantage of Rennes' defeat against Chelsea, also qualified in the same group.
Four days and the essential is already folded in an unbalanced group E: the big fish Chelsea and Seville, at their ease with ten points, are qualified, while the rookies Krasnodar and Rennes are lost in the big European waters, with a single point.
Sevilla will host Chelsea next week to play the important first place for the draw.
At the same time, Rennes will go to Krasnodar for a match in which the eventual winner will take 3rd qualifying place in the Europa League.
Tuesday, in a fight on the unbalanced paper, the suspense first seemed to be nipped in the bud in Krasnodar: from the 4th minute, the Croatian playing master of Andalusians Ivan Rakitic opened the scoring with a superb half. cross volley, from outside the box.
In front of sparse spectators in the stadium in southeast Russia, where the public is partially allowed, Krasnodar was in the first act paralyzed by the stake, with only one - timid - opportunity, of a soft strike from the Frenchman Remy Cabella.
But the Russians came back much more enterprising in the second half and the former player of Marseille and Saint-Etienne almost equalized, taking advantage of a huge mistake by defender Nemanja Gudelj, his shot being pushed back at the last moment on the post by his compatriot Jules Koundé (49th).
It was the Brazilian-Belgian Wanderson who scored the goal of 1-1 and hope, with a cross shot after a good shift from Kristoffer Olsson.
Koundé, who was still in the last defender position, could not do anything this time and deflected the shot in his goal (57th).
But in a disjointed end to the match, the former FC Barcelona Munir El-Haddadi finally validated, in two stages in the area (90th + 4), the Sevillian ticket for the knockout phase.
© 2020 AFP