Sevilla surge past Porto and into semis
Thursday, April 10, 2014
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Sevilla FC 4-1 FC Porto (agg: 4-2)
The hosts scored three in the first 29 minutes to turn the tie around, though they played the last half-hour with ten men after Coke's red card.
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After racing into a 3-0 first-half lead through Ivan Rakitić, Carlos Bacca and Vitolo, Sevilla FC weathered a red card and an FC Porto revival before Kevin Gameiro's strike sealed a place in Friday's UEFA Europa League semi-final draw.
Trailing 1-0 from the quarter-final first leg, the home side wiped out the deficit inside five minutes as Rakitić swept in from the spot. It got better – much better – as two goals in four minutes before the half-hour mark sent the fans into delirium. Forced onto the back foot by Porto's greater urgency and a 54th-minute second yellow for right-back Coke, Unai Emery's charges rode out the storm and grabbed a fourth through substitute Gameiro – rendering Ricardo Quaresma's stunning injury-time effort a mere consolation.
In a rip-roaring start in Andalusia, Sevilla laid siege to Porto, and they soon had tangible reward – skipper Rakitić coolly dispatching a penalty after the omnipresent Bacca was fouled in the box. Limited to counterattacking sorties by the hosts' intense pressure, the Portuguese champions had barely settled when they were rocked twice more, Vitolo slotting cleverly past Fabiano from Bacca's headed assist before Bacca got in on the act with an opportunistic third.
Despite the onslaught, the visitors showed impressive steel to lift their game, with Quaresma chiefly responsible for dragging Luís Castro's men forward. They returned for the second period in determined mood, and Porto were already dictating matters when Sevilla went down to ten men – Coke receiving his second booking.
Yet after Quaresma twice, Hector Herrera and substitute Juan Quintero had all tested Beto's reflexes, Sevilla began to get to grips with their numerical disadvantage. The Dragões' sting thus drawn, La Bombonera de Nervión erupted once more on 79 minutes when Vitolo's low centre was palmed out by Fabiano and the grateful Gameiro slammed in. There was still time for Quaresma's superb added-time strike – a goal his brilliance richly deserved – but it was too little, too late.
