Sevilla vs Juventus: Lamela rolls back the years to send hosts to seventh Europa League final

Sevilla forward Erik Lamela dug deep to send Los Nervionenses to their seventh UEFA Europa League/UEFA Cup final. 

Lamela assisted Sevilla’s equaliser and scored the winner against Juventus in extra time of their UEL semifinal second leg to set up an intriguing final against AS Roma, who beat Bayer Leverkusen earlier in the day. 

The special performance was one that we have not seen from Lamela in a while in a Sevilla jersey, as he contributed to two goals in the same match for only the second time this season, the first against minnows Linares in the Copa del Rey. 

Sevilla were the dominant side for most of the game, hoping to press on their home advantage after securing a 2-2 draw in the first leg against Juventus. 

The Spanish side had 61% possession in the opening 45 minutes of the game, firing off twice as many shots (10) as Juventus did in the first half (5). 

Despite this, the sides went into the break on level terms, as Sevilla were unable to find a way past Juventus’ sturdy defence. 

In fact, it was Juventus who came closest to finding the back of the net in the first half as forced Yaccine Bounou in the Sevilla goal into a smart stop to keep the scores level going into the half-time break. 

In the second half, Sevilla continued to dominate possession, but Juventus opened the scoring against the run of play through Serbian forward Dusan Vlahovic, who got on the scoresheet just 58 seconds after coming on as a substitute.  

The lead did not last long, however, as Sevilla winger Suso found the back of the net with a vicious strike from range to draw the sides level. 

His goal saw the game drag on into extra time despite the home side’s best efforts, as Juventus goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny pulled off a number of magnificent saves to keep his side in the game. 

His heroics and Sevilla’s dominance continued into extra time and it was only a matter of five minutes into extra-time before the Juventus dam broke when Lamela headed the hosts in front from Bryan Gil’s superb cross. 

Sevilla held on to the lead for the rest of extra time, despite Juventus coming close a few times. Los Nervionenses have now reached a seventh UEFA Europa League final and they will play against AS Roma, hoping to continue their 100% record in European finals.