Federico Gatti on Thursday headed home in the 97th minute to earn Juventus a 1-1 draw against Sevilla in their UEFA Europa League semi-final first leg.
Youssef En-Nesyri gave the record six-time champions the lead in the first half and they seemed set to take that advantage back to Seville before Gatti’s late intervention.
Morocco’s En-Nesyri finished a sharp counterattack in the 26th minute to break the deadlock in Turin.
Photo: AFP
Jose Luis Mendilibar’s side deserved their lead at halftime and although Juventus improved, the Andalucians shut them out well in their bid to take their advantage back to the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan next week.
However, Gatti nodded home from point-blank range after substitute Paul Pogba headed the ball back into his path from a corner.
“It’s a shame, given the game that we played, that they leveled in the last play of the match, but it is what it is,” Mendilibar said. “We stopped Juventus in every moment and we played well at times, too, we have to think about that, not the last moment of the game.”
Lucas Ocampos, recalled from his loan at Ajax in January, sent a shot just wide from close range, before making amends by setting up the opening goal.
Ocampos drove forward and played a low ball across the penalty area, which Bryan Gil left for En-Nesyri to sweep home.
“On the counterattack we were caught out because we didn’t track back and left gaps,” Juve coach Massimiliano Allegri told Sky Sport Italia. “[We] did well to fight back and get a deserved draw, which leaves everything to play for in the second leg.”
Eventually Juve’s second-half pressure paid off when Gatti scored with virtually the last touch of the game, leaving honors even ahead of the return in Seville and ensuring the Italian side remained unbeaten at home in the Europa League this season.
Sevilla players were left frustrated as the 24-year-old nodded in after the six minutes of stoppage-time had expired.
“It’s a pity, the referee let play go on and we didn’t know how to defend the move,” Mendilibar said. “Sometimes it goes for you, sometimes against you. If we had defended well, then nothing would have happened.”
In the other semi-final, Edoardo Bove fired AS Roma to a 1-0 win over Bayer 04 Leverkusen in a tight first leg.
Bove scored the only goal of the game in the 63rd minute at the Stadio Olimpico, allowing Jose Mourinho’s side to take a slender lead into next week’s second leg in Germany.
“It’s all down to the boys tonight, who played with desire and the right mentality,” Mourinho told Sky Sport. “I have put in a lot of miles over the course of my career, but even I really felt the support of the fans tonight and the boys responded with the desire to make them happy.”
Roma took the win despite having a host of players either out or barely fit to play, with stars Paulo Dybala and Georginio Wijnaldum only coming on in the final 15 minutes to help out an exhausted, largely second-string team.
“Roma were a bit more dangerous in the second half, but we had the feeling that we could beat them in their own backyard,” Leverkusen goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky said. “It’s not the best result for us, but it could have been worse.”
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