EUROPA League
FULL TIME: WOLVES 0-1 SEVILLA -EUROPA LEAGUE – SHAKHTAR DONETSK 4-1 BASEL
Gooooal!
Van Wolfswinkel (Basel) scores!
A consolation for Basel and a memorable moment for the returning striker whose career was threatened by injury. Campo breaks down the right and sends a low centre across the face of goal, bobbling through to substitute Van Wolfswinkel, who converts from close range.
Full Time: Wolves 0-1 Sevilla
GOAL! Wolves 0-1 Sevilla (Ocampos 88′)
Heartbreak for Wolves!
Banega does not take the corner this time, but it is played back to him and he gets his delivery right.
That being said, Ocampos still has a lot to do but his glancing header gives Patricio no chance as he nets his 17th of the season.
Gooooal!
Dodô (Shakhtar Donetsk) scores!
85min: Wolves 0-0 Sevilla
Wolves may have had the best chance of the evening but Lopetegui will be furious that his side have missed the headers they have created.
Their latest falls to En-Nesyri from a Banega corner, and he heads over after good pressure from Ruben Neves.
That is En-Nesyri’s final involvement, as he is replaced by Luuk de Jong, who has not scored in 10 games, while Franco Vazquez replaces Joan Jordan.
Shakhtar Donetsk 3-0 Basel
A third and decisive goal it looks like for the Ukrainian side, with Alan Patrick netting their third from the penalty spot.
71min: Wolves 0-0 Sevilla
Twenty minutes to go in this one and we are no closer to finding out who will face Manchester United in the semi-finals.
Diego Carlos is receiving some treatment here, and he has done well since giving away the penalty.
Him and Kounde have given themselves a few yards to defend against Traore who has failed to recreate his run in the first half.
61min: Wolves 0-0 Sevilla
There may be no crowd in the stadium, but the tension is palpable as Dendoncker does well to come back and stop Jordan from unleashing a shot from Fernando’s cross.
Reguilon then has a wild effort from the resulting corner, as Sevilla aim to continue their momentum.
54min: Wolves 0-0 Sevilla
Wolves started the first half very well, but it is Sevilla who have imposed themselves at the start of this second period.
The Sevilla defence are now not allowing space for Jimenez and Traore, with Nuno having Diogo Jota on the bench.
53min:Fernando (Sevilla) is penalised for a foul on Rúben Neves (Wolves).
49min: Wolves 0-0 Sevilla
Yellow card
Saïss (Wolves) is cautioned by the referee.
Suso appears to have picked up exactly where he left off, helping the Spanish side break before Ocampos is surrounded, and then to deliver a flighted ball that Doherty has to head behind for the corner.
Second half resumes
46min: Wolves 0-0 Sevilla
It is the Spanish side who get us back underway in Duisburg, can they muster a better performance in this half?
In the other match, Taison scored Shakhtar’s second and they look well on their way to meeting Inter Milan in a few days’ time. They lead 2-0 at half time against Basel.
Match summary
- Júnior Moraes scores 2nd-minute header
- Taison doubles lead with fine team goal
- Marcos Antônio also hits bar for Shakhtar
- Nikolić denies Júnior Moraes and Marlos
- Winners will face Inter in semi-finals
The referee blows for half-time.
That’s the end of an intriguing first half. Wolves started brightly and, of course, the best chance went their way but Jiménez fluffed his lines from the penalty spot, his weak kick allowing Bounou to save. But Sevilla improved and have had their own chances later in the half, the best of them El-Nesyri’s shot across the face of goal. Plenty more twists and turns to come.
A half of two halves. Wolves came sprinting out of the blocks, not least in the shape of Traoré whose remarkable run earned the early penalty spurned by Jiménez. Since then, Sevilla have shaken themselves into gear and are largely in control of possession. It’s well poised.
Half Time: Wolves 0-0 Sevilla45min: Wolves 0-0 Sevilla
One minute added on at the end of the half.
43min: Wolves 0-0 Sevilla
Patricio is playing in his 108th European game tonight, and he is on hand here to keep out a powerful drive from Jordan.
A couple of minutes until the break here in what has been a tight affair.
37min: Wolves 0-0 Sevilla
Sevilla’s star man Lucas Ocampos has had a very quiet evening so far, but he gets into the game here with a nice curling effort.
It does not add to his tally of 14 LaLiga goals for the season, not having enough curl on it to beat Patricio
Summary so far
WOLVES 0-0 SEVILLA
· Jiménez penalty saved by Bounou
· Diego Carlos fells Traoré to concede spot kick
· Rui Patrício denies Suso at other end
· Winners play Man. United in semi-finals
Shakhtar Donetsk 2-0 Basel
35min: Wolves 0-0 Sevilla
Jesus Navas has enjoyed himself down their right-hand side and has whipped in many dangerous crosses.
Wolves are struggling to get out of their own half at the moment, with Suso also picking up good positions in the hole.
Shakhtar Donetsk 2-0 Basel
Meanwhile in the other quarterfinal duel of Shakhtar Donetsk and Basel in in Gelsenkirchen the Ukraine side, Donetsk are cruising home comfortably with an early goal. Moraes has given the Ukranian side the lead against their Swiss opponents.
Later, they added a second goal, setting up a possible semifinal clash with Inter
24min: Wolves 0-0 Sevilla
We haven’t seen much from Sevilla in an attacking sense, but here is a half-chance for En-Nesyri, who can only divert the cross from the right miles over the bar.
Nuno’s men have shown a good shape to their play so far
WOLVES 0-0 SEVILLA
Match summary
- Jiménez penalty saved by Bounou
- Diego Carlos fells Traoré to concede spot kick
- Sevilla unchanged from win against Roma
- Winners play Man. United in semi-finals
Penalty missed
Jiménez (Wolves) misses from the penalty spot.
Jiménez scored the only goal against Olympiacos from the spot… But this time he’s denied! Not the best penalty you’ll ever see, not well struck, and pushed away by Bounou.
Diego Carlos (Sevilla) concedes a penalty for a foul on Traoré (Wolves).
Like Manchester United, Wolverhampton Wanderers (Wolves) will be hoping to snap a semi-final ticket as they take on Spanish side, Sevilla in a quarterfinal duel tonight in Duisburg.
Sevilla are the Europa League’s most successful club in the competition .The other quarter-final of the evening sees Shakhtar Donetsk and Basel battle it out in Gelsenkirchen for the chance to face Inter Milan in the other semi-final.
Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim defended under-fire goalkeeper Andre Onana following the Cameroonian’s costly mistakes in his side’s 2-2 draw at Olympique Lyonnais in their Europa League quarter-final first leg on Thursday.
Onana allowed Thiago Almada’s free kick to squirm past him in the Groupama Stadium and was also at fault for Rayan Cherki’s last-gasp equaliser that denied United victory.
Since the start of last season, no Premier League club’s goalkeeper has made more errors leading to goals being conceded in all competitions than Onana.
“It can happen, if you play football, you play a lot of games, you can make mistakes,” Amorim said. “If you look at the season, I make more mistakes than them during these last games and these last months.
“The other thing is we have one more game to change everything and that should be our focus.
“The best thing is to look at the goals, all the actions that Andre had in the game, this is the best way to help any player, it’s to focus on the game, what happened, what we need to improve.”
United nonetheless remain unbeaten in this season’s Europa League — the only side to do so this term — after goals from Leny Yoro and Joshua Zirkzee put them on course for a potential victory.
The team, who are 13th in the English Premier League standings, still go into next week’s second leg in Manchester as favourites to book a spot in the last four.
“It was an entertaining game,” Amorim added. “We had some difficulty in the first half trying to press, because Lyon played in a different way. Then, in the middle of the first half and especially the second, we controlled the game.
“The second leg will be a different game. At home, our fans want us to press all the time.”
-Reuters
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Manchester United will be without defender Harry Maguire and midfielder Manuel Ugarte for Thursday’s Europa League last-16 clash with Real Sociedad, coach Ruben Amorim said, as he seeks to salvage an otherwise dire season.
The pair were left out of an already depleted squad after picking up injuries in last weekend’s penalty shootout defeat to Fulham that dumped them out of the FA Cup to compound the misery of lying 14th in the Premier League.
“We are being careful with them because at the moment we cannot afford to lose any more players for a long time,” Amorim told a press conference on Wednesday before the Europa League first leg game in Spain.
“We are taking care of them at Carrington (training ground) and they cannot play this game because it will be a greater risk.”
The coach, who joined United in November, stressed the importance of balancing youth development with the needs of the squad during a worsening injury crisis.
“I’m trying to cope with everything. When I do my squad, I’m trying to think about every aspect, of the formation of the (new) kids, of the squad and not if it will look really well with the fans and the media,” Amorim said.
Altay Bayindir, Tom Heaton, Jonny Evans, Kobbie Mainoo, Luke Shaw and Mason Mount remain on individual rehabilitation programmes.
Lisandro Martinez, who tore his anterior cruciate ligament, and Amad Diallo, who suffered an ankle ligament injury in training, are also sidelined.
-Reuters
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Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes scored a last-gasp winner to secure a 2-1 victory over Rangers in the Europa League group stage on Thursday and Tottenham Hotspur captain Son Heung-min struck twice in his team’s 3-2 win at Hoffenheim.
United climbed to fourth in the standings on 15 points going into the last round of matches, in a strong position to reach the knockout phase along with Spurs who are sixth with 14 points.
The English side broke the deadlock early in the second half when Rangers goalkeeper Jack Butland misjudged a Christian Eriksen corner, sending the ball into his own net.
Rangers fought back with an equaliser from substitute Cyril Dessers two minutes from time before Fernandes struck in added time to give United all three points.
In Germany, James Maddison opened the scoring for Spurs in the third minute and Son doubled the lead in a first half the visitors dominated.
Hoffenheim pulled one back in the 68th minute through Anton Stach’s counter-attack goal. Son restored Spurs’ two-goal lead in the 77th minute before the hosts’ David Mokwa scored to give his side late hope but the game ended in a narrow win for the English side.
Lazio stayed top of the standings with a commanding 3-1 home victory over Real Sociedad to become the first team to qualify for the round of 16.
Mario Gila struck after five minutes and when Sociedad’s Aihen Munoz was shown a second yellow card on the half-hour mark, Lazio immediately seized the advantage.
Mattia Zaccagni quickly doubled the lead and Taty Castellanos effectively ended the match with a third for the hosts. Ander Barrenetxea scored a late consolation goal for Sociedad.
Eintracht Frankfurt moved closer to securing a top-eight spot with a 2-0 home win over Hungarian side Ferencvaros thanks to second-half goals from Can Uzun and Hugo Ekitike. They are second in the standings with 16 points, three ahead of ninth-placed Galatasaray.
A late goal from Troy Parrott gave AZ Alkmaar a 1-0 home win over AS Roma and Olympiacos earned a 1-0 victory at Porto thanks to a late goal from Ayoub El Kaabi.
Dutch side Alkmaar can still reach the top eight with 11 points sitting in 14th place while Roma’s nine points place them 21st, close to the bottom of the playoff section.
Fenerbahce and Olympique Lyonnais played out an intense goalless draw in Istanbul, leaving the French side in a strong position to progress to fifth place in the group on 14 points.
-Reuters
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