Sports writing, May 11. The defender Federico Gatti managed to tie for Juventus in the 97th minute (1-1) the first leg of the Europa League semifinals that he played this Thursday in Turin against Sevilla, a team that caressed victory after a great first half and control in the second, so he has a bad taste in his mouth but also a good result with which to face next week’s return at Sánchez-Pizjuán.
The Spanish team scored in the first half through the Moroccan Youssef En-Nesyri and was able to achieve a few more in this period against the lost rival, while in the second they did not go through too many difficulties, although in the last play of the game, in a The corner that the Sevilla fans protested, alleging that it should not have been thrown because it was already out of the six minutes given by the referee, came the draw that leaves an open round and also the name of the team that will be in the final in Budapest.
The best Sevilla of the season, liberated from the fears of relegation in which he has been mired throughout the course until José Luis Mendilibar came to the bench at the end of March, wanted to face the difficult appointment without complex against one of the historical figures of football European.
Already in the previous tie they beat another continental giant like Manchester United and that gave the team more confidence to continue expanding the history in this competition, in which it is the one that has won the most titles, up to six, the third of them precisely in this same stadium against Benfica in Lisbon in 2014.
But the ‘Vecchia Signora’ also appeared in this semifinal with a lot of enthusiasm after a confusing campaign conditioned by the decisions of the Italian sports court, in which Napoli have already secured the title of Serie A champion.
Full of great footballers, the team coached by Massimiliano Allegri could not count on this occasion due to injury to the Brazilian central defender Gleison Bremer and also joined due to a long-term injury to right-back Mattia de Sciglio.
Yes, there were players like the veteran central defender Leonardo Bonucci or people of higher quality than the Argentine Ángel Di María or the Serbian Dusan Vlahovic and before them Mendilibar brought out a very starting team, despite the fact that the winger Suso Fernández or the midfielder stayed in Seville injured Senegalese Pape Gueye, this one not being registered in the continental competition.
The Piedmontese team did not come out with the intention of streamlining and rather it seemed that they wanted the Andalusian to advance lines to create spaces to surprise, as the Serbian Filip Kostic tried or later with the appearance of Di María and Vlahovic.
But that also gave options to Sevilla, who looked for the rival area with an aerial game and there the first to appear twice against the Polish goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny was the Argentine Lucas Ocampos and in a third with his foot, the most dangerous.
Although the one who opened the scoring in his first shot was En-Nesyri, who finished off a counterattack by Ocampos shortly before the half hour mark and thus added his eighteenth goal so far this season among all competitions.
The happiness of the visitors was not complete, since minutes later Ocampos, the most prominent of his team up to that moment, had to retire with a muscle injury and be replaced by his compatriot Gonzalo Montiel.
This inconvenience was not noticed by Sevilla, who maintained their good disposition on the field, without having problems in defense and even with arrivals in search of the second against a blurred Juventus who even thought it was good to go to rest with only 0-1.
Allegri did not see anything clear and from the beginning of the second part brought on the young Englishman Samuel Iling-Junior and Federico Chiesa to give another rhythm to the attack, which made the Bianconeri squad react in an attempt to take control of the situation .
It was Iling-Junior who finished off after 63 minutes for the first time between the three sticks for the local team, but the Moroccan Yassine Bono, who returned to the goal after being a substitute for the Serbian Marko Dmitrovic in LaLiga, had no problem stopping the ball.
The Italian coach exhausted the five substitutions after seventy minutes, with Di María leaving the field and the entry of the Frenchman Paul Pogba, with which there was more strength in the local midfield, but the minutes passed without ‘Juve’ ‘ translate their territorial dominance into another that truly disturbed the sevillistas, who were content to control.
Mendilibar’s men’s plan fell apart on the last day of the match, with Gatti’s header already on time and to the joy of the locals and the despair of the visitors.
– Data sheet:
1 – Juventus: Szczesny; Danilo, Bonucci (Gatti, m.61), Alex Sandro; Square, Miretti (Chiesa, m.46), Locatelli, Rabiot, Kostic (Iling-Junior, m.46); Di Maria (Pogba, m.70) and Vlahovic (Milik, m.61).
1 – Seville: Bonus; Jesus Navas, Badé, Gudelj, Acuña; Fernando, Rakitic; Ocampos (Montiel, m.34), Óliver Torres (Papu Gómez, m.74), Bryan Gil (Lamela, m.81); and En-Nesyri.
Goals: 0-1, M.26: En-Nesyri. 1-1, M.97: Gatti.
Referee: Daniel Siebert (Germany). He admonished the locals Rabiot (m.43), Lacatelli (m.77) and Chiesa (m.79) and the visitors Rakitic (m.72), Bryan Gil (m.78), Badé (m.82) and Lamela (m.93).
Incidents First leg of the Europa League semifinals played at the Juventus Stadium, which was filled with some forty thousand spectators, including some 1,500 Sevilla fans. It rained during some phases of the match. EFE
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