Sevilla scores and secures the Europa League
Sampaoli’s men keep their Champions League options alive thanks to a successful and long-suffering second half against Copenhagen
MADRID, 25 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Sevilla thrashed Danish Copenhagen (3-0) on Tuesday at the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán and at least guaranteed their participation in the Europa League after getting their first home win of the season and in the Champions League, thanks to a good reaction in the second part.
Jorge Sampaoli’s team saved a ‘match ball’ in a game with a lot of suffering that closed in the second half with goals from En-Nesyri, Isco and Montiel, which ended with the resistance of a rival who proposed an intense game that was for many minutes on the wire and that ended up decanting in the final minutes of the Sevilla side.
In addition to the prize of achieving the mathematical classification for their ‘fetish’ competition, the Seville team keeps their options alive to get the round of 16 ticket for the top competition if Borussia Dortmund falls to Manchester City, although they would also need to beat Pep’s Guardiola and that the German team falls to Copenhagen on the last day.
The first part of the crash did not have much to tell. Sevilla found themselves with a well-established rival, who closed down to try to run the counterattacks and although Suso, one of the novelties in the eleven, tested Grabara twice with his prototypical shot from the right wing and the locals dominated and stepped on the visiting area, the lack of speed and clarity in front of goal prevented him from opening the scoring.
The Danish team did not give too much sense of danger either, although they had a good chance to have taken the lead, with a shot by Haraldsson from outside the area, avoided by the stretch of Dmitrovic, Bono’s substitute.
He changed the script after the restart and, although Copenhagen threatened the Seville goal in several plays on the counterattack and brought nervousness to the stands, Sevilla struck first and found the prize for the goal in the head of En-Nesyri, who had entered at the break replacing Dolberg.
‘Papu’ Gómez managed to put a good cross into the area, where the Moroccan, between the shoulder and the head, surprised the defense and finished off the bottom of the goal, scoring his second goal of the season, just
when Sevilla needed it most. The joy and relief of the striker was tarnished shortly after by the change of him due to injury when he had barely played half an hour
Copenhagen had seriously threatened Dmitrovic’s area, but after taking the weight off the goal, Sampaoli’s team tried to better manage the game and their advantage, but had to defend themselves tooth and nail against a Danish team, which in a more offensive variant came to enclose him in his own area. The scare came after 80 minutes when Diks, with a beaten Dimitrovic, crashed his header into the crossbar.
Moments of trouble for those of Sampaoli who knew how to keep their heads straight against a rival who did not stop trying, but who found Isco’s magic to stop their chances of tying the match in their tracks. The quality of the man from Malaga came to the rescue again for Nervión and with a threaded shot to the top corner from the left he doubled the advantage for his team.
With the locals launched and with spaces, Montiel closed the win for his team after hunting a rebound from a shot from the edge of Lamela to sentence a duel that ended with a direct red card for Khocholava, via VAR, after a strong tackle on Isco, a reflection of the impotence of a Copenhagen that saw how the match was broken in the end to the benefit of the sevillistas.
DATASHEET.
–RESULT: SEVILLA FC, 3 – COPENHAGEN, 0 (0-0, at halftime).
–ALIGNMENTS.
SEVILLE: Dmitrovic; Telles, Marcao, Gudelj, Montiel; Rakitic, Papu (Acuña, min.77), Jordán; Suso (Lamela, min.55), Isco and Dolberg (In Nesyri, min.46, Rafa Mir, min.70).
COPENHAGEN: Grabara; Jelert (Sorensen, min.80), Kocholava, Lund (Diks, min.80), Kristiansen; Clem (Oskarsson, min.80), Lerager, Claesson; Jóhannesson (Bardghji, min.62), Daramy y Haraldsson (Cornelius, min.72).
–GOALS:
1-0, minute 61. In Nesyri.
2-0, minute 88. Isco.
3-0, minute 92. Montiel.
–REFEREE: Benoît Bastien (FRA). He admonished Lamela (min.72) and Montiel (min.78) by Sevilla; and Claesson (min.69) and Sorensen (min.86) in Copenhagen. He expelled Khocholava for a direct red card (min.95).
–STADIUM: Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán. 29,884 spectators.