Record winner FC Sevilla has again reached the final in the Europa League. Juventus missed the Italian final against AS Roma on Thursday (May 18, 2023) with the 2-1 (0-0, 1-1) after extra time.
A few weeks ago it was almost utopian that the season could still be a success for Juventus Turin. In Serie A there was a 15-point deduction due to suspicion of market manipulation and balance sheet falsification and in the Europa League there were no exciting performances after leaving the Champions League.
After the Juve penalty was reversed by Serie A and the club suddenly jumped to a place in the Champions League, the feeling of happiness is back in Turin. The best example of this was the equalizer in the first leg of the Europa League semifinals against Sevilla. In the seventh minute of added time, Federico Gatti made it 1-1 and kept the club dreaming of their first international title since 1996 going into the second leg – but that dream was dashed in Sevilla.
Lots of chances, no goals, a lot of excitement
The Spanish hosts dominated the game from the start, but Torino were initially the more dangerous side, but were denied a number of times by Sevilla goalkeeper Bono. For example, Gatti didn’t manage to get past the Moroccan from close range (15′). However, the best chance was missed by Moise Kean, who hit the post (33rd).
But Sevilla also became dangerous again and again in a fast-paced game. Lucas Ocampos missed the first top-class goal with a diving header against the equally strong Wojciech Szczesny (24′), Ivan Rakitic narrowly missed the Turin goal from 15 meters (34′). However, there was a lot of excitement just before the half-time whistle. Surprisingly, after a clear foul by Juan Cuadrado on Oliver Torres, Sevilla did not get a penalty despite viewing the video images (45 + 1).
Vlahovic scores, Suso counters
The lively giving away of the best chances continued in the second half. Adrien Rabiot failed completely free-standing from 15 meters (55th), missed the opposing goal. But then a teammate showed him how to do it. Dusan Vlahovic came on in the 63rd minute and scored the opener two minutes later. After a strong individual performance, the striker lobbed the goal that could bring his team the final in the Europa League (65th).
But Sevilla came back quickly. Just six minutes after making it 1-0, Suso scored a dream goal to equalize Record champions in the Europa League (since 2009/10) with four titles so far (71st). And because not much happened after that, it was the goal for extra time – like the first leg, the second leg ended 1-1 after 90 minutes.
Lamela heads Seville to Budapest
Bono showed his class again in extra time. The 32-year-old parried a low shot from Federico Chiesa excellently (95th) – and thus gave his team the lead. Because in direct return, Erik Lamela scored the 2:1 with a header (95th).
Juve threw everything forward again and came up with promising final situations several times. However, the necessary precision was lacking in the decisive moments – and so Turin failed despite being outnumbered (Marcos Acuna saw yellow-red in the 115th minute because of a time game) at Sevilla, who are in the final of the competition for the fifth time since 2013/14. There, the Spaniards will meet AS Roma, who drew 0-0 at Bayer Leverkusen after a 1-0 first-leg win.