Dismal Man United eliminated from the Europa League, Mat Ryan plays with a double penalty for the Dutch club
Mistakes by Harry Maguire and David De Gea resulted in an embarrassing 3-0 defeat at Sevilla as Manchester United’s Europa League dreams went up in smoke in Spain.
A week after blowing a comfortable two-goal lead in the first leg of their quarter-final, the Red Devils withered rather than rally at the Estadio Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan switch on Thursday.
Youssef En-Nesyri capitalized on a Maguire error and, after Loic Bade’s header, punished De Gea’s slippage in a 3-0 win that saw United make a humiliating Europa League exit 5-2 on aggregate .
The Red Devils had eliminated Barcelona and Real Betis to reach this stage, but for the sixth consecutive season their European dreams have ended in defeat against Spanish opposition.
Sevilla started this race in 2018 and had the visitors on their backs from the start on Thursday, when Erik ten Hag’s plea for his players to keep their cool fell on deaf ears.
Pressure from the home side forced Maguire into an error following a bad fade from De Gea, with Erik Lamela winning the ball and En-Nesyri striking in the seventh minute.
Lucas Ocampos was denied a goal and despicable United were lucky not to be further behind at the break, only to cash in again 76 seconds after the restart.
Bade, who started the season on loan at Nottingham Forest, returned home and the response from the absent visitors was desperate and disjointed as they failed to win one back.
In fact, things got even worse as En-Nesyri scored from wide into an empty net after De Gea failed to clear a high ball.
Record-breaking Europa League winners Sevilla, who will continue their quest for a seventh title, are joined by Bayer Leverkusen who secured a 4-1 victory at Union Saint-Gilloise.
Juventus were held 1-1 at Sporting but progressed to the next stage with the 1-0 first leg win.
Sevilla have arranged a meeting with Juventus, while Leverkusen will face the winner of AS Roma’s draw with Feyenoord.
Leverkusen reached the Europa League semi-finals for the first time despite drawing 1-1 at home last week.
They got off to a perfect start as Moussa Diaby found the opener with just two minutes played and Mitchel Bakker doubled their lead in the 38th minute.
Jeremie Frimpong added a third in the 61st and Casper Terho pulled one back four minutes later, but Adam Hlozek sealed the victory for the German side.
Juventus and Sporting were entertained in their clash on Thursday before the Italians progressed.
Juve took an early lead through midfielder Adrien Rabiot who scored from close range after nine minutes from a corner.
Sporting winger Marcus Edwards equalized from the penalty spot in the 20th minute when he sent goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny the wrong way with a strike in the middle of the goal after Rabiot was penalized for a tackle on Manuel Ugarte.
A spirited clash continued after the break as Sporting confidently pressed for possession, but defenders Ricardo Esgaio and Sebastian Coates squandered three late chances to equalise.
Meanwhile, Socceroos goalkeeper Mat Ryan was the star as his side AZ Alkmaar qualified for the UEFA Conference League semi-finals on Thursday, beating Belgian club RSC Anderlecht on penalties after winning 2-0 in regular time.
AZ scored all four penalties they took in the shootout, with youngster Mexx Meerdink scoring the winning penalty. Former Ajax defender Jan Vertonghen and Killian Sardella’s penalty kicks were saved by Ryan.
A two-goal deficit from the first leg was erased by AZ within 13 minutes after Evangelos Pavlidis netted an early penalty then quickly added a second which was given following a VAR review.
Neither side could find a winner before the end of extra time, with Jens Odgaard having his goal for the hosts disallowed for offside, it was a penalty shootout.
Australian number 1 Ryan then became the hero, making two fine saves to break Anderlecht’s heart.
Alkmaar will now meet British side West Ham, who qualified for the last four with a 4-1 win over Gent at the London Stadium to complete a 5-2 aggregate win.
A Lucas Paqueta error allowed Hugo Cuypers to put the Belgians ahead after 26 minutes but Michail Antonio’s header quickly leveled the Irons.
West Ham were awarded a penalty early in the second half following a VAR review of a handball, with Paqueta making amends for his earlier mistake of sending the kick coldly.
Captain Declan Rice added a third a few minutes later with a fine solo goal after running from inside his own half.
Antonio drilled a fourth, with Jarrod Bowen then having his handball effort ruled out in the build-up as David Moyes’ side continued their European adventure.
Moyes called Rice West Ham’s ‘Roy of the Rovers’ after his memorable goal.
Rice scored a goal that Roy Race, the comic book hero of Melchester Rovers, would have been proud of.
The England midfielder won the ball in his own half, collected the ball from Paqueta and ran 60 yards, avoiding two challenges before driving the ball home.
“It was certainly a fabulous individual goal,” Moyes said.
“It was a goal from Roy of Rovers. You dribble, you beat someone, you start again and you go on and score. He is a player, he has great abilities and this goal summed it up tonight.
Fiorentina withstood a fightback from Lech Poznan to progress 6-4 on aggregate despite losing 3-2 in the second leg at Stadio Artemio Franchi.
The Italians had appeared to control the draw after a 4-1 away win, but Poznan fought back to equalize after an early goal from Afonso Sousa followed by a penalty from Kristoffer Velde.
Artur Sobiech made it 3-0 on the night with 20 minutes to play.
Fiorentina, however, retook the lead in the draw through Riccardo Sottil before Gaetano Castrovilli secured the result with another stoppage-time goal.
Basel went through extra time to beat Nice 2-1 at the Allianz Riviera for a 4-3 aggregate win.
Gaétan Laborde gave the advantage to the French in the 9th minute. Basel, however, made their comeback as Jean-Kevin Augustin equalized late.
Kasim Adams’ header eight minutes into the first extra period finally settled things.
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