Hard weekend for the city of Manchester. After the elimination of Manchester City in the Champions League on Saturday, it is the turn of the other big club in the city to get out of a European cup. Sevilla FC has indeed qualified for its fourth Europa League final in seven years by overthrowing Manchester United (2-1) in Cologne on Sunday.
The hard work of Yassine Bono
In the previous round, Manchester had long stumbled on the defense and Danish goalkeeper Kalle Johnsson before finding the loophole during extra time, from a penalty. This scenario was reproduced a bit with Yassine Bono. The Sevilla FC goalkeeper almost justified on his own why his team had not conceded a goal for five games before this meeting and why it remained on a record series of 19 games unbeaten since February, now increased to 20. He fists a floating free kick from Marcus Rashford (39th), a tight shot from Bruno Fernandes, before coming out well in the feet of Mason Greenwood (46th) and twice in those of Anthony Martial (53rd), including he had already repelled a close-angle attempt three minutes earlier.
The main difference is that this time, the Manchester players did not wait until the end of the match to take the lead. After a brilliant pass in the middle of the box from Martial in the race for Rashford, Bono repelled the shot from the English striker. But it was without counting on the referee Felix Brych who sanctioned the dangerous intervention of Diego Carlos. Bruno Fernandes, with his funny run-up that ends with a kind of kid's jump before hitting the ball, then shot under the opposing crossbar (0-1, 7th), for his 12th goal of the season .
Manchester releases
Unfortunately for him, United have been punished twice on releases. After a first alert from Lucas Ocampos in a closed angle, pushed back by a new holder David De Gea (16th), Suso found himself at the far post at the conclusion of a beautiful collective action concluded by a fleeing center by Sergio Reguilon to equalize (1-1, 26th). The key to the action had been wrongly awarded to Sevilla, with defender Jules Koundé grazing the ball with his head, prompting protests from the Red Devils. Sevilla carried the blow twelve minutes from the end by the Dutchman Luuk De Jong, who took advantage of a lack of aggressiveness of the Manchester rearguard, visibly blunt, to score quietly at the far post. The epilogue is bitter for United who came very close to qualifying.
On Friday, the Andalusians, vying to win their sixth C3 over the last fifteen editions, will face Inter Milan or Shakhtar Donetsk, who face each other on Monday evening.
Sport
Manchester United and Inter Milan advance to Europa League semi-finals
Sport
The revenge of French football and the Farmers League on Europe
- Manchester United
- Soccer
- Europa League
- Sevilla FC
- Sport