Juve and Florence took the lead in the 1st leg last night against Sporting and Lech Poznań respectively. Leverkusen and Union Saint-Gilloise fought to a draw. While Basel and Nice did the same.
Juventus 1-0 Sporting Lisbon
Juventus did good business on Thursday in the Europa League diptych with Sporting Portugal. That Turin victory also meant excellent news for the Netherlands.
Shortly before the break of the game between Juventus and Sporting, it was suddenly completely silent in the stadium in Turin. Wojciech Szczesny indicated that he could not continue, he grabbed his chest and left it in tears. That was quite a shock, but Juventus soon came up with a redeeming statement that after the first check everything turned out to be okay with the Polish closing post.
The focus could thus return to football in the second half. Juventus and Sporting kept a hold on each other for a long time, but in the 73rd minute the Bianconeri finally scored. Dusan Vlahovic headed in the ball after a high cross, but saw his effort taken off the line, but Federico Gatti was there to give the decisive touch: 0-1.
Juve crossed the line, thanks in part to a great reflex from Mattia Perin, who came on for Szczesny, and gave the Netherlands a huge windfall in the coefficient battle.
Bayer Leverkusen 1-1 Union Saint-Gilloise
Union Saint-Gilloise already eliminated a high flyer from the Bundesliga. With Union Berlin and waited for a new test with Bayer Leverkusen. However, the Belgian stunt team turned out to be perfectly up to the task. Victor Boniface put the visitors, where Bart Nieuwkoop had a basic place, ahead even shortly after the break: 0-1.
Leverkusen, with Jeremie Frimpong and Mitchel Bakker as wingbacks, had to chase. The formation of coach Xabi Alonso managed to win its previous seven games in a row, but had to work hard on Thursday to prevent a home defeat. In the end it was Florian Wirtz who scored 1-1 ten minutes before the end. As a result, everything is in balance towards next week’s return in Brussels, which will determine who will face Feyenoord or AS Roma in the semi-finals.
Lech Poznań 1-4 Florence
Lech Poznan coach John van den Brom visited Fiorentina on Thursday in the quarter-finals of the Conference League. The visitors from Italy got off to a flying start with a goal from Arthur Cabral in the fourth minute. Kristoffer Velde did something back relatively quickly on behalf of the home team, but then Fiorentina thundered over Van den Brom’s team. Goals from Nico González, Giacomo Bonaventura and Jonathan Ikoné made it 1-4.
FC Basel 2-2 Nice
Wouter Burger (FC Basel) and Pablo Rosario (OGC Nice) had a starting place in the Conference League match in Switzerland. Mohamed Amdouni managed to score twice, but because Terem Moffi did the same on behalf of Nice, that was not enough for the victory. The goal below was particularly beautiful.
