Cup joy for City, Paris, Barcelona and Juventus
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
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Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain reached the League Cup final in England and France respectively, while Barcelona progressed in Spain and Juventus closed in on the Coppa Italia final.
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WEDNESDAY
Juventus 3-0 Internazionale Milano (Morata 35pen 63, Dybala 83)
Juventus took a firm grip of their Coppa Italia semi-final thanks to Álvaro Morata's first goals since 4 October. The Spanish forward, who had not scored in his previous 20 Juve appearances, opened the scoring from the penalty spot after Juan Cuadrado had been felled by Jeison Murillo, who was later sent off. Morata snapped up a loose ball to double the holders' advantage ahead of next week's second leg in Milan, before Paulo Dybala slotted a late third.
Atlético Madrid 2-3 Celta Vigo (Griezmann 29, Correa 82; Hernández 22 64, Guidetti 56)
Atlético's Copa del Rey campaign was ended at the quarter-final stage, Diego Simeone's side suffering their first defeat in nine matches to lose 3-2 both on the night and on aggregate.
Barcelona 3-1 Athletic Club (Suárez 53, Piqué 81, Neymar 90; Williams 12)
Despite a 2-1 win in Bilbao in the first leg of their Copa del Rey quarter-final, Barcelona were made to sweat by opponents they also defeated 6-0 in the league on 17 January. Iñaki Williams gave the visitors an early advantage, but Luis Suárez – scorer of a league hat-trick against Athletic – did it again to settle Barça nerves. Late goals from Gerard Piqué and Neymar extended the team's winning run to seven matches in all competitions.
Paris Saint-Germain 2-0 Toulouse (Lavezzi 65, Di María 72)
The third meeting between the teams in ten days, in the French League Cup semi-finals, ended the same way as the previous two – with a Paris win. Laurent Blanc's side were made to work for their victory but Ezequiel Lavezzi's first club goal since 7 November broke the deadlock before Ángel Di María struck his third goal in two games to take Paris, winners in 2014 and 2015, into a third successive final.
Manchester City 3-1 Everton (Fernandinho 24, De Bruyne 70, Agüero 77; Barkley 18)
Kevin De Bruyne came off the bench to inspire Manchester City into the League Cup final for the second time in three years. Trailing to Ross Barkley's strike, which put Everton 3-1 up on aggregate, Fernandinho's deflected shot quickly equalised on the night. Substitute De Bruyne then continued his record of scoring in every round of this season's competition before delivering the cross from which Sergio Agüero's fine header finished off Everton, although worryingly the Belgian was carried off on a stretcher in added time. City will play Liverpool in the final on 28 February.
Excelsior 1-3 PSV Eindhoven (Bruma 90og; De Jong 8, Hendrix 48, Narsingh 59)
PSV recorded their fourth successive Eredivisie victory, and stretched their unbeaten run to 16 games (W13 D3) with a comfortable win at Excelsior.
Dynamo Kyiv 2-0 Lech Poznán (Júnior Moraes 53, Myakushko 90+2)
In the final friendly of Dynamo's training camp in Spain, half-time substitute Júnior Moraes – who had replaced former Lech forward Łukasz Teodorczyk – opened the scoring in Marbella with a low shot from outside the area. After several fine saves from Dynamo's 40-year-old goalkeeper Olexandr Shovkovskiy, and a good opening for Denys Garmash, Serhiy Myakushko rounded things off late on from a rebound.
TUESDAY
Moreirense 1-6 Benfica (Talisca 12pen 14 82, Gaitán 20 90, Raul Jiménez 30; Medeiros 25)
Talisca doubled his goal tally for the season with a hat-trick as Benfica emphatically qualified for the Portuguese League Cup semi-finals. The Eagles – who progress from the group stage with a perfect record of three wins – are away to Moreirense again on Sunday, this time in the Liga.