Two goals in the first half and sending off in the 98th minute
In one of the most intriguing matches of the 1/8 finals of the Europa League, Sevilla and Roma met. The fate of the confrontation was determined by the results of one game at a neutral stadium - in Germany. The reporting match took place in Duisburg at the Schauinsland-Reisen-Arena.
At the same time, a coronavirus patient was identified as part of the Spanish team a week before the game. Midfielder Nemanja Gudel passed a positive test for COVID-19. The Serb quarantined, and the tests of the rest of the Sevilla players gave a negative result.
The incident had no effect on the charges of Julen Lopetegui. They won a landslide victory, holding the initiative throughout the match. Roma, however, made a large number of mistakes and practically did not create dangerous moments. The Romans inflicted much fewer blows than the opponent (7:16), and hit the target of someone else's goal only once.
Sevilla opened the scoring already in the middle of the first half. Sergio Regilon burst into the penalty area, easily beating the opponent, and shot under the pivotal leg of Pau Lopez. This goal became the defender's debut in European competition.
Shortly before the break, Youssef En-Nesiri doubled the Spanish team's lead. After the lumbago Lucas Ocampos, he could only send the ball into the empty net.
In the second half of the meeting, Sevilla were close to bringing the case to defeat, but the referee from the Netherlands Bjorn Kuipers canceled Jules Kunde's goal after watching the replay, fixing the Frenchman offside.
And in the eighth minute added to the match, VAR helped him figure out the episode with an elbow blow to the head of Luc de Jong. Instead of the original yellow, the referee showed Gianluca Mancini a red card.
So, for the first time since 2016, Sevilla reached the LE quarterfinals, where they will play with Wolverhampton. And four years ago, the red and white won the tournament. Italy, after the departure of Roma, will be represented in the playoffs of the second most important European Cup only by Inter.
Reaching 17-year-old Wirtz and relegation of Gerard's team
Bayer is the only German team to continue playing in the Europa League. Leverkusen practically secured a ticket to the next stage back in March, having won the Rangers away - 3: 1.
In the return game, Peter Bosch's wards won with a minimum score and for the first time since 2008 made their way to the European Cup quarterfinals. The only goal at the beginning of the second half was scored by Moussa Diaby. After casting from the depths performed by Charles Arangis, the Frenchman broke through between the two defenders, handled the ball with his chest and shot exactly under the crossbar.
Also among the hosts is midfielder Florian Wirtz, who recently became the youngest footballer to play in the history of the Bundesliga. The player made his debut in the Europa League at the age of 17 years 3 months and 3 days.
Basel's unbeaten home streak and Fry's fifth goal
Another German team, Eintracht, finished their performance in the Europa League. After a major home defeat at Basel, Adolf Hütter's charges faced an extremely difficult task.
However, in the return meeting, the guests had practically no chances, and they struck only one shot on target in 90 minutes of the match. In the end, Basel snatched a victory. Experienced Fabian Fry delivered an accurate shot and distinguished himself in the third consecutive UEL match. All in all, he has five goals in the current tournament.
Along the way, the Swiss squad extended two impressive series, winning their seventh home win in the Europa League in a row and extending the unbeaten run at their home stadium to ten matches.
Basel managed for the first time in six years to break into the top eight teams in the second most important European Cup. In the quarterfinals, Marcel Koller's team will play against Shakhtar.
Two canceled goals and Wolverhampton's first UEFA quarter-finals in 48 years
Another quarterfinalist of the tournament was the English Wolverhampton. The charges of Nuno Espirito Santu managed to break the resistance of Olympiacos. The champion of Greece at the previous stage of the tournament knocked Arsenal out of the fight, but failed to cope with another representative of the Premier League.
The first match in Greece ended in a draw - 1: 1, which provided the “wolves” with a minimal advantage. And at the very beginning of the home meeting they managed to come out ahead. Guest goalkeeper Bobby Allen pushed the opponent in the back in his own penalty area, and the referee Shimon Marcinjak awarded a penalty.
Raul Jimenez confidently implemented the 11-meter. The Mexican scored the tenth goal in the current UEL and came in second in the tournament's top scorers. In it, he is second only to Alfredo Morelos of the Rangers, who has 14 goals.
This season, Jimenez scored 37 points for performance (27 goals + 10 assists) in all competitions. This is the best result among any Premier League player, along with Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne.
One goal "Wolverhampton" did not manage and immediately scored the second. However, the referee canceled the goal by Romain Sesom due to a violation of the rules.
And in the middle of the first half, the referee team did not count the Olympiacos ball. It took the judges four minutes to determine that Youssef El-Arabi, who scored a cross from the front to Mohamed Qamar, was in a small offside position.
After the break, the guests struggled to equalize the score, but they did not manage to do this, despite 11 shots on goal.
And if in the match against Arsenal in London the Greek team was lucky, but this time the fortune was on the side of Wolverhampton, which made it to the European Cup quarterfinals for the first time since 1972. Then the team reached the final of the UEFA Cup, where they were defeated by Tottenham.