Sunday. 22.12.2024

A clever set piece brilliantly finished by Munir gave record winners Sevilla a 1-0 home victory over West Ham on Thursday to keep them on track for a Europa League final in their own stadium.

Sevilla will travel to London for next week's last 16 second leg narrowly ahead from an end-to-end game which saw both sides make chances.

But the only goal came on the hour mark when Munir lurked at the back post and coolly half-volleyed Marcos Acuña's free kick into the far corner of the net.

Munir played as star midfielder Ivan Rakitic pulled out feeling ill after the warm-up.

"At midday we knew he felt a bit poorly," Munir said. "I was told to be prepared in case I needed to come in. I always work to be ready for when the gaffer needs me."

Sevilla have won six UEFA Cup/Europa League titles and with May's final in their own Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium have even more incentive than normal to progress in the competition.

"We played a good game," said Sevilla coach Julen Lopetegui. "The first half was more even, in the second half we dominated more."

Barcelona 0-0 Galatasaray

10 March 2022, Spain, Barcelona: Galatasaray's Kerem Akturkoglu (R) and Barcelona's Pedri battle for the ball during the UEFA Europa League round of 16 first leg soccer match between FC Barcelona and Galatasaray SK at Camp Nou. Photo: Gerard Franco/DAX via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa.
Galatasaray's Kerem Akturkoglu (R) and Barcelona's Pedri battle for the ball. Photo: Gerard Franco/dpa.

Barcelona meanwhile were held 0-0 at home by Galatasaray and were particularly frustrated by visiting goalkeeper Iñaki Peña - who is their player on loan at the Turkish side.

Frenkie de Jong did hit the post for the hosts but they also had a let-off as Bafétimbi Gomis had a potential winner disallowed.

“You need to play well as a team," Galatasaray midfielder Sofiane Feghouli told EXXEN. "We did that tonight. Now we will rest first and then focus on the return leg in İstanbul.”

Other matches

There were goals aplenty in contrast in Bergamo where Atalanta overturned Charles Aranguiz's early opener for Bayer Leverkusen with a quick-fire blast from Ruslan Malinovskyi and Luis Muriel before the break.

Muriel added a third straight after the restart but a fine solo finish from Moussia Diaby made the final score 3-2 with all to play for in Germany even in the absence of the away goals which was scrapped this season.

“I don’t think we had a great game but in some moments we managed to make the most of the space they gave us," Leverkusen defender Jonathan Tah told UEFA.com.

The other Bundesliga side in the competition, RB Leipzig, are already in the quarter-finals as opponents Spartak Moscow have been banned from European matches following the invasion of Ukraine.

Rangers won an extraordinary game in Glasgow 3-0 over Red Star Belgrade where the visitors had three goals disallowed - all correctly - for marginal offsides and also missed a penalty.

In the other match of the night Braga defeated Monaco 2-0.

Sevilla beat West Ham in the Europa League while Barcelona drew