D-SSELDORF, Germany (AP) – There is a way out if a team deserves to win the Europa League. He plays in Seville.
Manchester United will face the europa League’s top experts against five-time champion Sevilla in the semi-finals on Sunday. Every time Sevilla triumphs in the quarter-finals, they win the festival and Sevilla has never lost a Europa League match against an English club.
United midfielder Nemanja Matic believes strength will be key in Cologne.
“We are in good condition. Of course, it’s been a long season, but we knew it before, what to expect. And the most important thing now is to be intellectually prepared,” Matic said after the quarter-final win over Copenhagen. “I think this intellectual point will be (the) semi-final and the final.”
The semi-finals went to United. Manchester City eliminated United from the EFL Cup in the semi-finals in January and Chelsea did the same in the FA Cup last month.
United finished the Premier League season with good taste, but will have to reflect that form on the European stage. Against Copenhagen, the most sensible Europa League goalscorer Bruno Fernandes nevertheless won the 1-0 fit with a penalty, but only after the Danish club forced United to do more time, more physical fatigue the longest season.
Sevilla has recently moved away from the extra time in their 1-0 win over Wolverhampton thanks to Lucas Ocampos’ 88th-minute winning goal. Sevilla is unbeacited in 19 matches in all competitions and coach Julen Lopetegui says the players are excited.
“(United) is obviously a more sensible team with a wonderful force, however, those are the semi-finals of the Europa League, and the only thing we will achieve through any difficulty or scenario we find at this peak is ambition, excitement and preference to compete,” Lopetegui said.
SHAKHTAR’S JOURNEY
The opponent of Inter Milan’s semi-final, Shakhtar Donetsk, has played an authentic home match in more than six years.
His hometown is Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine, which has been under the command of Russian-backed separatists since 2014. Since then, the club has used various stadiums in Ukraine for league and European matches.
However, something has changed. As in 2009, when Shakhtar won the Europa League with a team that added English Premier League stars Willian and Fernandinho, he continues to build his team around Brazilian-born players.
His four goalscorers in the 4–1 win over Basel in the quarter-finals were born in Brazil. The young Ukrainian naturalized Moraes Shakhtar with a header in the minute moment before Taison, Alan Patrick and Dodo finished the job.
“I feel amazing, ” said Moraes. “We are convinced that we can go all the way to the final, but each and every game is very difficult, very complicated because we play as opposed to a higher point, so the opponent is very complicated. But if you need to improve, you have to play against those teams.”
To reach the latter will mean defeating Inter and the fit striker Romelu Lukaku when the two groups face off in Dusseldorf on Monday. Inter beat Bayer Leverkusen 2–1 in the quarter-finals.
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