In the Europa League and Conference League the semi-finals are tough.
Europa League
Rome (Italy) – Bayer (Germany) – 1:0 (Bove 63)
The match in Rome was marked by the feeling that there will be another second leg ahead. Jose Mourinho is too experienced a European Cup fighter to reveal all his cards in the first match of a two-round clash. So the debut here also remained with Bayer, but Roma dried up everything well and did not allow Leverkusen to shake up the match, and then take the initiative. Roma worked as pragmatically as possible. Bayer was no sharper, even though they had the ball less than 60% of the time.
The second half only increased Bayer’s possession percentage. But after an hour of play, the Leverkusener found themselves in a recovery position. The Romans used their rare chance. A simple exchange with a throw-in on Abraham, a discount on Bove and a shot from Tammy himself resulted in Edoardo being eliminated. By taking the lead, Roma found themselves in Mourinho’s favorite element and did not give up on victory. Although in the last few minutes the hustle and bustle in front of the gate almost brought problems. Patricio collides with Ibanez, the ball bounces to Frimpong, but his shot is blocked by Cristante.
As a result, more than 62% of the time the ball was owned by the visitors, who achieved a passing accuracy of less than 85%. But “Roma” more often brought their attacks to the hands. The Romans have only 12 attempts, five of which are accurate. Bayer have ten shots and only two were accurate. It is clear that Roma will have difficulties away from home, and there is no clear favorite here yet. Bayer Leverkusen have lost just one of their last seven home games in all competitions, while Roma have won just one of their last ten away.
Juventus – Sevilla – 1:1 (Gatti 90+6 – En-Nesiri 26)
The main fighter of the Europa League continues his way to the final. Sevilla can take this away draw as an asset, however, depending on the scenario of the meeting, the fans of this team will probably be a little upset, because everything went to the Spaniards to win. Until the last moment.
If the game in Rome was pragmatic and cautious, the one in Turin burned with passion right from the first minutes. In the first half of the match, Sevilla were able to solve all the problems, because they created many scoring chances in one fell swoop, but only managed one. A quick combination with the transfer of Ocampos ended with a goal from En-Nesiri, which at the end of the half hour of the meeting looked quite logical. Turintsy looked so unattractive. True, Sevilla soon lost one of the main creators – Ocampos was injured. This slightly dampened the ardor of the Spaniards in the second half.
The first half was left entirely to the guests. They have scored 12 shots in the half of the Juventus goal. Five of them hit the target. Turintsy responded with only three inaccurate attempts. So they were still happy to have gone 0-1 down at half-time. But in the second half the guests chose tactics that were not correct. Massimiliano Allegri, realizing that the departure option did not “take away” at all, immediately began to make substitutions, and they really invigorated Juventus.
But Sevilla pressed harder and harder. He tried to establish a game on the break, but without Ocampos the sorties did not work. Only in the second half did Juventus have possession of the ball 67% of the time. Turintsy has already landed eight blows, two of which hit the target. And Sevilla was marked by only one inaccurate attempt by Jesus Navas throughout the second half.
But this pressure from Torino was much less acute than Sevilla’s attacks in the first half. However, in the sixth minute of added time, after a corner kick and confusion in front of Bunu’s goal, Gatti closed Pogba’s discount on goal. Both players came on as substitutes, by the way. Like Church, which served from the corner. We can say that Allegri guessed with the substitutions. However, a draw in such a match looks like a big success for Turintsy. In Seville they will certainly not be favourites.
Conference League
West Ham (England) – AZ (Netherlands) – 2:1 (Benrahma 67 (line), Antonio 76 – Reynders 41)
The match in London developed somewhat unexpectedly, where even the crisis of West Ham, who had just corrected things in the league, seemed clearly favored against AZ, the fourth team from the Netherlands. The guests immediately got better in possession of the ball and in getting rid of it. True, West Ham’s attacks on each other turned out to be sharper. With 40% ball possession, the Londoners shot eight times with three-and-outs AZ – five times, but with exactly the same three. And one of the correct tries was scoring. So the Dutch led to the break.
Interestingly, after the break, the Londoners were no longer in possession of the ball, although the score seemed to be forced. But their game has changed and has become even sharper. AZ he concentrated on ball control, with which he tried to dry up the game, which was proposed in such a scenario. He failed to do it. Midway through the second half Benrahma converted a penalty and less than ten minutes later Antonio gave West Ham the lead. And it didn’t seem like a surprise. The Londoners shot 11 times with three accurate tries in the second half, while AZ there were only three shots, and those were inaccurate.
Fiorentina – Basel – 1:2 (Cabral 25′ – Diouf 71′, Amdouni 90’+3)
If in Turin the Italian team happily escaped defeat in added time, in Florence other Italians suffered an unexpected defeat. Even if everything started well for Fiorentina. He took over the game in his usual style, grabbed the ball, territory, shot attack after attack and scored eight shots, two accurate, one goal – by Cabral. Basel tried to fight back, but with three strikes they almost didn’t pose a threat.
But in the second half he made the most of his opportunities. Fiorentina had even more ball possession, they were already shooting seven times, only one shot was accurate. And Basel have two out of five. And both were scoring. After 70 minutes Diouf equalized and in added time Amduni brought victory to Basel, shocking the hosts’ fans. Fiorentina counted 54 attacks Uefa for this match. And Basel only had 23. But the Swiss were more effective. However, Fiorentina have experience of impressive away victories this season. So nothing has been decided here either.
