Gatti snatches Juve late draw against Sevilla

Federico Gatti headed home in the 97th minute to earn Juventus a 1-1 draw against Sevilla in their Europa League semi-final first leg on Thursday.

Youssef En-Nesyri gave the record six-time champions the lead in the first half and they seemed set to take that advantage back to Seville before Gatti’s late intervention.

Moroccan international En-Nesyri finished a sharp counter-attack in the 26th minute to break the deadlock in Turin.

Jose Luis Mendilibar’s side deserved their lead at the break and although Juventus improved, the Andalucians shut them out well in their bid to take their advantage back to the rowdy Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan next week.

However Gatti nodded home from point blank range after substitute Paul Pogba headed the ball back into his path from a corner.

“It’s a shame, given the game that we played, that they levelled in the last play of the match, but it is what it is,” said Mendilibar.

“We stopped Juventus in every moment and we played well at times too, we have to think about that, not the last moment of the game.”

Sevilla, who dumped Manchester United out in the quarter-finals, have never been knocked out of the tournament in the semi-final stage.

“On the counter-attack we were caught out because we didn’t track back and left gaps,” Juve coach Massimiliano Allegri told Sky Sport Italia.

“(We) did well to fight back and get a deserved draw which leaves everything to play for in the second leg.”

Bove hands Roma small lead

Edoardo Bove fired Roma to a 1-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen in a tight first leg of their Europa League semi-final on Thursday.

Bove scored the only goal of the game in the 63rd minute at the Stadio Olimpico, allowing Jose Mourinho’s side to take a slender lead into next week’s second leg in Germany.

The win gives Mourinho the chance to reach his second European final in as many years as Roma coach after winning the Europa Conference League last season.

“It’s all down to the boys tonight who played with desire and the right mentality,” Mourinho said to Sky Sport.

“I have put in a lot of miles over the course of my career but even I really felt the support of the fans tonight and the boys responded with the desire to make them happy.”

Roma took the win despite having a host of players either out or barely fit to play, with stars Paulo Dybala and Georginio Wijnaldum only coming on in the final 15 minutes to help out an exhausted, largely second-string team.

“Roma were a bit more dangerous in the second half, but we had the feeling that we could beat them in their own backyard,” said Leverkusen goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky. “It’s not the best result for us but it could have been worse.”