The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
– More stunning comebacks –
CSKA head coach Viktor Gancharenko added: “We looked very good for 75 minutes and deservedly led. We were close to a comeback but we were not close enough.”
After Roma’s stunning comeback against Barcelona in the Champions League on Tuesday, and Juventus’s heroic effort against Real Madrid on Wednesday, Marseille and Salzburg came up with stunning fightbacks of their own in the last eight of Europe’s second-tier competition.
Marseille, the 1993 Champions League winners, needed to overturn a 1-0 first-leg deficit when they hosted RB Leipzig at the Velodrome.
…and then there were four
The Europa League semi-final draw takes place from 11am (UK time) tomorrow pic.twitter.com/uWbgY7Ib9I
— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) April 12, 2018
The evening started badly for the French club as Bruma swept home for the visitors inside two minutes, leaving Marseille needing three goals to turn the tie around.
But they did that before the interval in front of a huge Velodrome crowd, via a Stefan Ilsanker own goal, Bouna Sarr and Florian Thauvin.
Jean-Kevin Augustin scored to swing the tie back Leipzig’s way 10 minutes after the break, but Dimitri Payet made it 4-2 on the night in some style five minutes later.
With the Germans sending everyone forward for a corner in stoppage time, Marseille made sure of the victory as Hiroki Sakai netted on the counter-attack to complete a 5-3 aggregate win.
Salzburg lost 4-2 to Lazio in Rome last week but won 4-1 in the return in Austria, despite Ciro Immobile giving the Italians a second-half lead on the night.
The hosts proceeded to score four times in 20 minutes, through Munas Dabbur, Amadou Haidara, Hwang Hee-Chan and Stefan Lainer, to advance 6-5 on aggregate.
Meanwhile, Atletico held on in the rain in Lisbon to win 2-1 on aggregate against Sporting, despite losing on the night to a Fredy Montero header in the first half.
The draw for the semi-finals will take place on Friday.
