Seville (AFP)
Moroccan international Youssef Al-Nusairi led Spain’s Seville to the semi-finals of the European League, “Europa League”, by scoring a double in the sweeping 3-0 victory over its English guest Manchester United in the second leg of the quarter-finals, after the two teams tied 2-2 in the first leg.
Al-Nusairi (8 and 81) and Frenchman Luic Badeh (47) scored the goals of the Andalusian team, which will face Juventus in the last square.
United hoped to remain on the path towards achieving a second title in the first season of its Dutch coach, Eric Ten Hag, after winning the League Cup, but he paid the price of a late setback in the first leg at home.
They looked set to win 2-0 last Thursday before conceding two own goals in the final six minutes.
As for Seville, although it is going through one of its worst seasons locally in recent years with its presence in the thirteenth place, after it was competing for the Champions League places, it reaffirmed that it is the “master” of this competition, which was crowned six record times, the last of which was in 2020.
And after he performed well against Spanish clubs in the competition this season, eliminating Barcelona in the qualifying playoffs and then Real Betis in the final price, and achieving a victory over Real Sociedad in the group stage, his contract against Seville continued after he suffered a third loss against two draws in five confrontations against him.
United played the match without its Argentine international player, Lisandro Martins, whose season ended after suffering a metatarsal fracture during the second leg, in addition to his colleague in the heart of the French defense, Rafael Varane, who was injured in the same match and was absent for a few weeks.
He also missed the Red Devils, his Portuguese playmaker Bruno Fernandez, due to the accumulation of warnings after a yellow card last Thursday.
He is still competing on another domestic front, as he plays Saturday the FA Cup semi-final against Brighton at Wembley Stadium and ranks third in the Premier League.
Sevilla scored the first goal, taking advantage of a gag from defender Harry Maguire, after he was trapped near the opponent’s area, as the ball reached him from Spanish goalkeeper David de Gea, and when he was passing the ball to his colleague Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Argentine Eric Lamela cut the ball before Al-Nusairi grabbed it and fired it to Right De Gea from inside the area (8).
The heart of Sevilla’s Brazilian defense, Marcao, came out due to injury after half an hour, and Sosa replaced him, who posed danger in his team’s attacks.
United breathed a little sigh of relief after a goal by Argentine Lucas Ocampos was canceled, by returning to the video assistant referee “VAR” to infiltrate Argentine Marcos Acuña in building the attack (42).
Ten Hag made two changes early in the second half, bringing in Marcus Rashford, returning from injury, and Luke Shaw, replacing Gaydon Chansu and Wan-Bissaka, respectively.
But United received an early blow to any attempt to return when the Andalusian club doubled after just two minutes with a header by Badeh after a corner executed by Croatian Ivan Rakitic (47).
And Seville would have added the third had it not been for De Gea’s save from a very close range to Ocampos (52).
Problems continued for United, with the exit of Frenchman Anthony Martial injured, and the entry of Dutchman Vout Fijkhorst in his place (54).
United tried to reduce the difference with a shot by Brazilian international Casemiro, which was pushed away by Moroccan goalkeeper Yassine Bono (62).
Al-Nusairi took advantage of a fatal mistake by De Khia, who went far from his area to control the ball, but he failed to do so, so the Moroccan settled the ball from a distance in the empty goal (81).
German Bayer Leverkusen reached the semi-finals by defeating its Belgian host Saint-Gilloise 4-1 after they tied 1-1 in the first leg.
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