News Archive

Europa League, round of 32, second leg

Spain will at least have one team in tomorrow’s draw after Celta beat Shakhtar Donetsk 0-2 on Thursday evening. They left it late though, Iago Aspas cancelling out the Ukrainian side’s first leg lead with a last minute penalty, and Cabral heading the winner following a corner with the game in extra time. Earlier in the evening Villarreal and Athletic Bilbao both bowed out of the competition after losing against Roma and APOEL Nicosia respectively. Villarreal had little hope after the 0-4 first leg defeat, but a strike from Santos Borré at least gave them a 0-1 victory in the return match. Athletic though were favourites to go through after a 3-2 win in the San Mamés stadium win a week ago. However they were unable to convert any of the many chances they created, and a Soteriou strike and a Gianniotas penalty in the first ten minutes of the second half gave the Cypriot side a 2-0 victory in the end. (23.02.17)

APOEL Nicosia 2 - Athletic Bilbao 0

Athletic Bilbao bowed out of this season’s Europa League after a humiliating 2-0 defeat in Cyprus! The Basque side were favourites to go through after a 3-2 win in the San Mamés stadium win a week ago. However without the injured Aduríz they were unable to convert any of the many chances they created, Williams in particular unable to beat Waterman on three or four occasions. Just a minute in to the second half Soteriou opened the scoring for the locals with an acrobatic shot from Efrem’s cross, and ten minutes later Gianniotas made it two from the penalty spot after he was pushed over by Balenziaga. Midway through the second half APOEL were left with ten men when Soteriou picked up a second booking, but even so Waterman was hardly troubled, and numbers were evened up when Iturraspe was also shown a second yellow card with a couple of minutes to go.

Roma 0 - Villarreal 1

Villarreal came in to their second leg tie against Roma with little hope of reaching the last sixteen after a 0-4 defeat in the first leg, but they at least salvage some pride with a 0-1 victory in the Stadio Olimpico. Fran Escribá rested several of his key players, but Soldado was back after a long injury lay-off, and with a quarter of an hour gone Vermaelen failed to clear his cross, allowing Santos Borré to latch on to the rebound and fire home the opener. Before that Roberto Soeiano had hit the bar, and only a couple of good saves by Alisson stopped Rodri and Soriano from scoring a second. After the interval the Italians did have a couple of chances, Andrés having to keep out Perotti, and 40-year old veteran Totti firing a shot over the top. With ten minutes to go though Rudiger was sent off for a second bookable offence, and Alisson made sure that there would be no late surprises with two more saves from Santos-Borré.

Shakhtar Donetsk 0 - Celta 2 (after extra time)

Spain will at least have one team in tomorrow’s draw after Celta beat Shakhtar Donetsk 0-2 on Thursday evening. With Villarreal and Athletic both being knocked out earlier in the evening, the Galicians were La Liga’s last hope. However a 0-1 defeat in the first leg left them with an uphill battle, and only a couple of good saves by Sergio Alvarez prevented Kovalenko and Taison from increasing the lead before the break. Iago Aspas did test Pyatov two or three times though, and although Alvarez made further stops in the second half from Fred and Blanco, Aspas levelled the tie in the last minute from the penalty spot after Guidetti fell under a challenge from the Ukrainian keeper. That took the game in to extra time, and with twelve minutes to go Cabral headed the winner from a Jozabed corner.