Sporting, Atletico move closer to Europa final
Source: Agencies |
April 21, 2012, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
ATLETICO Madrid and Sporting Lisbon held the balance of power after Thursday's Europa League semifinal first legs.
Atletico, inspired by a Radamel Falcao double, beat Valencia 4-2 in Madrid, while a stunning late comeback saw Sporting topple Athletic Bilbao 2-1 in the Portuguese capital.
Poor defending by Valencia's Adil Rami was partly to blame for 2010 winner Atletico taking an 18th-minute lead.
Arda Turan cut the ball back off the goal line and after taking a deflection Falcao headed past Diego Alves for his 31st goal of the season and his 11th in the last dozen games.
Against the run of play Valencia went into the break all square after Rami headed the ball down for Jonas to tap in from a corner deep into first half stoppage time.
Atletico was only back on the pitch four minutes before it had regained the advantage with the unmarked Miranda heading in low past Alves off Diego's long range freekick.
Atletico moved even closer to the final in Bucharest in the 54th minute after a charging run by Adrian Lopez who produced a clinical finish with a tight angled shot to foil Alves.
Falcao then wrapped up a memorable night for Atletico, running rings round the Valencia defense to slam the ball into the roof of Alves's net for his 32nd goal of the campaign.
The prospect of an all-Spanish final looked very much on the cards nine minutes after the restart in Lisbon. After a first-half stalemate, Bilbao grabbed an all-important away goal when Jon Aurtenetxe volleyed home a freekick from the right after the ball was flicked on by Sporting's Emiliano Insua.
But on 75 minutes former Liverpool back Insua put the host back in the game with his header into the corner of Gorka Iraizoz's net.
And five minutes later the Portuguese side completed the comeback when Diego Capel's shot from outside the box whistled past Iraizoz to give Sporting the upper hand ahead of the return leg in Bilbao.
Atletico, inspired by a Radamel Falcao double, beat Valencia 4-2 in Madrid, while a stunning late comeback saw Sporting topple Athletic Bilbao 2-1 in the Portuguese capital.
Poor defending by Valencia's Adil Rami was partly to blame for 2010 winner Atletico taking an 18th-minute lead.
Arda Turan cut the ball back off the goal line and after taking a deflection Falcao headed past Diego Alves for his 31st goal of the season and his 11th in the last dozen games.
Against the run of play Valencia went into the break all square after Rami headed the ball down for Jonas to tap in from a corner deep into first half stoppage time.
Atletico was only back on the pitch four minutes before it had regained the advantage with the unmarked Miranda heading in low past Alves off Diego's long range freekick.
Atletico moved even closer to the final in Bucharest in the 54th minute after a charging run by Adrian Lopez who produced a clinical finish with a tight angled shot to foil Alves.
Falcao then wrapped up a memorable night for Atletico, running rings round the Valencia defense to slam the ball into the roof of Alves's net for his 32nd goal of the campaign.
The prospect of an all-Spanish final looked very much on the cards nine minutes after the restart in Lisbon. After a first-half stalemate, Bilbao grabbed an all-important away goal when Jon Aurtenetxe volleyed home a freekick from the right after the ball was flicked on by Sporting's Emiliano Insua.
But on 75 minutes former Liverpool back Insua put the host back in the game with his header into the corner of Gorka Iraizoz's net.
And five minutes later the Portuguese side completed the comeback when Diego Capel's shot from outside the box whistled past Iraizoz to give Sporting the upper hand ahead of the return leg in Bilbao.
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