Europa League semifinal: How to watch as four teams grasp for a chance at glory

After two exciting first leg matches, we’ve now got just 90 minutes to go of the Europa League knockout rounds. The second leg of the semifinals are here, and while all four teams have done brilliantly to get this far, only two of them can earn a spot in the final in Warsaw on May 26th.

One tie is much closer than the other, but any of the four teams still has a chance to advance. This is a competition where anything can happen, and as often as not it does. You can just about guarantee that at least one of these two matches will see something crazy happen, because in the Europa League, it’d be stranger for everything to go smoothly.

3:05 p.m. ET, 10:05 p.m. local, NSK Olimpiyskyi, Kyiv, Ukraine
TV: Fox Soccer Plus (U.S.), Premium Calcio/HD (Italy), 2+2 (Ukraine), ITV 1/4 (U.K.), Sportsnet regional networks (Canada)
Online: Fox Soccer 2Go, ESPN3 (U.S.), Premium Play (Italy), Sportsnet World Now (Canada)
Listings from Live Soccer TV

The first leg looked to be well in control for Napoli -- until an abhorrently poor refereeing decision gifted Dnipro an equalizing goal, giving the Ukrainians an advantage heading in to the second leg of the tie. Few teams from the rest of Europe do well in Ukraine, be it because of the distance to travel, the noise of the home fans, or the freedom that Ukrainian sides seem to have in their play on home soil that doesn’t always get shown in other countries.

Of course, Dnipro are one of the several Ukrainian clubs this season that have been forced to play their “home” matches in Kyiv because of the near-constant fighting going on in the east of the country, so their home-field advantage may not be quite so pronounced as normal. Either way, they won’t be playing in the same defensive shell that Napoli were nearly incapable of penetrating a week ago, which could give the Italians the chance they need to find a way through despite the odds being seemingly against them. Both of these sides are desperate to reach a European final, Dnipro for the first time ever and Napoli for the first time since 1989 -- and whoever makes it will have been through quite a battle to get there.

3:05 p.m. ET, 9:05 p.m. local, Stadio Artemio Franchi, Florence, Italy
TV: Fox Sports 2 (U.S.), Gol T (Spain), Premium Calcio 1/2 HD (Italy), Sportsnet World (Canada)
Online: Fox Soccer 2Go (U.S.), Premium Play (Italy), Sportsnet World Now (Canada)
Listings from Live Soccer TV

Sevilla dominated the first leg, winning 3-0 at home and taking all the hope and pluck out of Fiorentina in the process. The Italians put up a good fight for much of the match, but they couldn’t hold up to the sheer quality of the defending Europa League champions, and that third goal hit them like a right hook to the chin: lights out.

Maybe the home crowd can revitalize Fiorentina, but only one team ever has come back from a three-goal first leg deficit in this competition, when Valencia came back and thumped Basel 5-0 in the second leg in the quarterfinals a year ago. It’s never been done in the semifinals, and while there’s a first time for everything, it certainly doesn’t seem likely today. Sevilla’s combination of a rough-and-tumble midfield and an attack that’s an expert on the counter attack is the perfect foil for all the things Fiorentina does on the pitch. There’s just not much hope for the all-Italian final that many Serie A fans were hoping for -- but the dream isn’t completely dead just yet. There’s always hope for a miracle, right?