The first leg of the Europa League semifinals didn’t have the high drama of many of the other knockout round matches we’ve seen so far this season, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t get to see some good football. With the two spots in the final in Warsaw on the line, all four teams wanted to do everything they could to give themselves an advantage for the second leg.
Europa League Semifinal: First leg sees Sevilla dominate and controversy strike
Sevilla earned a big win, but the other tie was marred by a wildly controversial goal.
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Sevilla 3-0 Fiorentina
Fiorentina surprised everyone by coming out on the road playing well, pressing forward aggressively and dominating the midfield battle. That early momentum came to little, though, with their biggest early chance getting whiffed on badly by Mario Gomez, giving Sevilla a chance to re-set and start imposing their will on this match instead of just absorbing what Fiorentina were throwing at them
That quickly led to the first goal of the semifinals, with Aleix Vidal finishing off a sweet move after 17 minutes from the edge of the box with a shot that completely froze Neto in Fiorentina's goal. Fiorentina nearly earned a quick equalizer, but Mati Fernandez somehow missed a shot at a wide-open goal. The match quickly became an end-to-end affair, with both sides getting multiple scoring chances but neither quite managing to convert any of them, either from poor finishing, offsides, or sloppy play.
Fiorentina nearly earned their equalizer right away in the second half, getting a free kick just outside the box when Joaquin was hacked down roughly while trying to dribble his way into the area. The free kick from Hernandez beat Sergio Rico to the near post, but his shot went wide of the post. Fiorentina had gotten more chances to score in this match than Sevilla, but poor finishing cost them time and again -- and that frustration got worse when Vidal got behind the viola defense again to finish from a tight angle and give Sevilla a two-goal lead.
From there, Sevilla started trying to shut things down. They weren’t afraid at all to push forward and try to score a third when the chance presented itself, but for the most part they busied themselves bruising and contusing every Fiorentina attacker, which for the most part the German referee allowed to happen. Sevilla lost their main midfield enforcer, however, when Stephane M’Bia suffered an apparent head injury, though he actually stayed in the match for several minutes before succumbing to it and being forced to come off.
Sevilla didn’t let that get them down, though, throwing on super-sub star Kevin Gameiro. He managed to score on his very first touch, with Fiorentina seemingly not knowing he was on the pitch for all the attention their defense paid him. That third goal really took the wind out of Fiorentina’s sails, with bad luck in the goal-scoring department being compounded by some brutally poor defending on all three Sevilla goals.
Napoli 1-1 Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk
Napoli dominated early possession, but struggled to actually get effective chances away thanks to a Dnipro defense that collapsed in to a tight, hard-to-penetrate knot with great effect every time Napoli entered the final third. While Dnipro would occasionally get forward to threaten on the counter, Napoli's defense and fullbacks were able to sniff out those efforts with ease most times, and the majority of the match was played in Dnipro's half of the pitch.
The Italians struggled badly to break down Dnipro's defense, proving unable to penetrate their back line as freely as they typically have against other Europa League opponents this season. They just couldn't find any kind of gap to exploit, and the only real scoring chance Napoli had in the first half came when Lorenzo Insigne cracked a snap-shot from outside the box off the post.
Those frustrations came to an end just a few minutes into the second half. Napoli caught Dnipro napping on a throw-in -- something Napoli have done to several opponents this season -- and it took a goal line clearance to keep them from scoring. The resulting corner saw David Lopez, normally not much of a goal threat, pop up free in space in front of the goal, and his bullet header beat everyone, giving Napoli a much-needed lead.
That goal forced Dnipro to come out of their shell a bit, having to try to actually push for an away goal now that they were trailing. That gave Napoli a little bit more freedom in attack, but for the most part they still struggled to actually get good shots away, especially with Gonzalo Higuain often taking a touch too many in front of goal.
That profligacy in front of goal cost Napoli badly, but not without controversy. Dnipro got a late equalizer when the defense went to sleep, allowing a cross from Artem Fedetskiy to get to Yevhen Seleznyov to slot home. The trouble was, both Seleznyov and Roman Bezus were well offside, but the Norwegian officiating crew apparently didn’t seem to care. The goal stood, and Dnipro come out with an even scoreline and an absolutely vital away goal in hand.
★★★
The two ties are set up interestingly for the second leg. Sevilla are probably through to the final again, but Fiorentina will look to ride their home advantage to make up ground, so the Spaniards can’t take things too easy. Napoli will need to find a way to win in Ukraine now, something many European sides struggle with, and that match could easily turn into a no-holds-barred slugging match. We’re far from done in the Europa League semifinals just yet, and things are going to get turned up to 11 next week.
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