Friday, 20 March 2015

Match Review : (UEFA Europa League ) Roma v Fiorentina / Sevilla FC v Villarreal

Brilliant Fiorentina stunned Roma with an early goal blitz to seal their spot in the Europa League quarterfinals at the expense of their Italian rivals.
Roma might have held a narrow advantage after drawing the first leg 1-1 in Florence but any hopes of progressing were sunk inside 21 minutes on Thursday as Gonzalo Rodriguez, Marcos Alonso and Jose Maria Basanta all netted for Fiorentina.

The visitors might have extended their lead further in the second half, Mohamed Salah hitting the woodwork twice, but in the end the 3-0 scoreline was more than enough to send them through as sorry Roma finished with 10 men following Adem Ljajic's late dismissal.
Roma have lost their way somewhat over the last month and their disappointing form caught up with them in emphatic fashion early on in this match.
The influential Salah had already fired a warning shot over the bar when Fiorentina took the lead through Rodriguez's eight-minute penalty after Jose Holebas' clumsy challenge on Matias Fernandez.
Rodriguez sent Lukasz Skorupski the wrong way from the spot and then, after being ordered to re-take the penalty, did exactly the same going the other way.
Then, in the 18th minute, came arguably the key incident of the tie as Alonso took advantage of a glaring mistake by Skorupski to give Fiorentina a second away goal.
In attempting to try and keep an errant back-header in play, Skorupski succeeded only in palming the ball back into the path of Alonso, who nicked it away and slotted into an empty net.
If that was not bad enough for the capital club, worse was to follow as more poor defending allowed Fiorentina to make it 3-0 three minutes later as Basanta was left unmarked to power home a header from Fernandez's corner.
With a quarter-final berth fast disappearing, Rome tried to grab a lifeline and Ljajic drew a parry out of Murara Neto before Miralem Pjanic's near-post header from a corner was cleared off the line by Borja Valero.
Roma could not find the foothold they needed before the break though, and they could easily have been further behind inside 12 second-half minutes.
Salah did all the hard work as he stormed into the area only to curl against the crossbar, before the on-loan Chelsea winger set up Khouma El Babacar for a clear shot that Skorupski did well to turn behind.
Fernandez also drew a parry out of Skorupski as Fiorentina continued to breach the struggling Roma defence almost at will.
Roma tried to rally again, Gervinho rounding Neto only to be denied by a crucial sliding tackle, while Alessandro Florenzi was unfortunate to see his acrobatic effort go straight at the Fiorentina goalkeeper.
But they never really looked like getting back into and it could have been even worse for them as Salah curled a 20-yarder against the post before Ljajic picked up a second yellow late on.
Sevilla remain on course to retain their Europa League title after easing past Spanish rivals Villarreal to reach the quarterfinals.
Having done most of the damage with a 3-1 first leg win at El Madrigal, Sevilla finished things off at home with a 2-1 victory courtesy of second-half goals from Vicente Iborra and his replacement Denis Suarez.
Villarreal had netted in-between those strikes through Giovani dos Santos' fine free-kick but almost immediately had centre-back Eric Bailly sent off as they tumbled out 5-2 on aggregate.
Sevilla scored the fastest goal in Europa League history in the first leg when Vitolo netted after just 13.21 seconds but it was Villarreal, with little to lose, who made the early running at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan.
Manuel Trigueros and Mario Gaspar both tested home keeper Sergio Rico in the opening 10 minutes, with the second effort producing a decent save at the expense of a corner.
The visitors continued to push forward but they could find no way through before the break, while Sevilla were unable to make the most of any of their openings at the other end either.
Both teams missed further opportunities in the second half, Gaspar shooting straight at Rico while Stephane Mbia headed a decent opening wide for Sevilla before claiming his shirt had been pulled.
Still needing to score three times to stay in the competition, Villarreal increasingly pushed more men forward and inevitably that left gaps at the back.
Sevilla spurned a three-on-one breakaway but were not so profligate in the 69th minute when Carlos Bacca charged clear before unselfishly rolling the ball across for Iborra to stroke into an empty net.
Villarreal, to their credit, refused to give in and pulled a goal back six minutes later with Giovani's curling free-kick from the edge of the box, but their mini-fightback ended soon after when Bailly was sent off 13 minutes from time.
The Ivory Coast international was shown a second yellow card for his challenge from behind on Iborra inside the centre-circle, although Bailly was far from impressed by referee Martin Atkinson's decision.
Sevilla, looking to win the competition for a fourth time in 10 years, ensured they made their man advantage count as they netted the winning goal in the 82nd minute when the unmarked Suarez headed home Benoit Tremoulinas' cross just moments after replacing Iborra.



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