Thursday, 20 March 2014

Europa league round-up

Juventus reached the Europa League quarter-finals after Andrea Pirlo's free-kick secured a 2-1 aggregate win over Serie A rivals Fiorentina.
Pirlo curled the ball into the top corner in the 71st minute of Thursday night's round-of-16 tie, just moments after Fiorentina's Gonzalo Rodriguez was sent off for a second bookable offence.
Lyon joined Juve in the last eight with a 5-3 aggregate win over Viktoria Plzen, despite suffering a 2-1 defeat in the second leg.
The Ligue 1 side took the lead through Bafetimbi Gomis' strike, but Daniel Kolar levelled for the hosts and Stanislav Tecl added a second before missing a penalty.
Valencia completed a 4-0 aggregate win over Ludogorets Razgrad as Paco Alcacer's goal earned them a 1-0 home-leg success.
AZ Alkmaar also progressed, holding Anzhi Makhachkala to a 0-0 draw in Russia to go through 1-0 on aggregate.
But Napoli bowed out with a 3-2 aggregate defeat after they were held to a 2-2 draw at home by Porto.
One goal down from the first leg, Goran Pandev levelled the tie in the 21st minute, but the Portuguese hit back through Nabil Ghilas and Ricardo Quaresma, and Duvan Zapata's late equaliser was in vain.
Ten-man Basel came from 1-0 down to knock out Salzburg with a 2-1 win in Austria.
The visitors suffered an early setback when Marek Suchy was sent off and Jonathan Soriano scored the first goal of the tie for Salzburg.
But Marco Streller made it 1-1 and Gaston Sauro netted a second against the hosts, who also finished with 10 men after Alan was dismissed in the dying stages.
Sevilla claimed a thrilling derby success at Real Betis, going through 4-3 on penalties after a 2-0 second-leg victory.
Two down from the first leg, Jose Antonio Reyes got Sevilla back in the tie and Carlos Bacca levelled it on aggregate with 15 minutes left.
Both sides had chances to win it in the closing stages and in extra-time, but neither could take them, and Beto's save from Nono's weak penalty sent Sevilla through.

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