Madrid, April 21 (IANS) Six-time UEFA Europa League winners Sevilla roared into the semifinals of the tournament with a 3-0 win at home to Manchester United.
Moroccan international striker Youssef En-Nesyri scored twice on Thursday night as Sevilla sealed a 5-2 aggregate win, which is all the more remarkable due to the fact that they fell 2-0 down in the first half at Old Trafford last week.
The high press favoured by recently arriving Sevilla coach Jose Luis Mendilibar was evident in their opening goal, which came after just eight minutes, reports Xinhua.
David de Gea played a dreadful pass out of his penalty area to Harry Maguire as three Sevilla players swarmed around the defender. Erik Lamela won the ball and fed it to En-Nesyri, who scored from 10 metres out.
Manchester United had little response to Sevilla’s aggression in front of a packed house, and Lucas Ocampos was unlucky to see a goal ruled out for offside shortly before halftime.
Marcus Rashford came on at the start of the second half, along with Luke Shaw, but the game had only just gotten back underway when Loic Bade doubled Sevilla’s lead with a looping header that went over De Gea’s outstretched arm.
Ocampos went close to a third but was denied by De Gea, while at the other end, Casemiro and Christian Eriksen went close to pulling a goal back for the visitors.
However, En-Nesyri sealed the win for Sevilla in the 81st minute after another poor pass-out from De Gea. The keeper passed straight to the striker, who made no mistake to net his second goal of the night to put his side into the last four.
–IANS
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