"Metalist" escaped in Piraeus

Metalist reached the quarter finals of the Europa League

Rustam Sharafutdinov close

Fernando Amorebieta's aerial duel with a Mancunian player

New PSV coach in the match with Valencia Philippe Cocu

Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea after conceding a goal

You can view the full gallery
in a separate report See photos

Kharkiv Metalist, losing at the end of the second half, scored two saving goals against Olympiacos and advanced to the quarter finals. Manchester City was knocked out of the Europa League, losing on aggregate to Sporting. Roberto Mancini's men, however, were one goal short of remaining in the European competition.

The last representative of ex-Soviet football in the person of Kharkov Metalist was almost knocked out of the Europa League. Myron Markevich's team almost became the next victim of the impregnable Olympiacos. The guests' game was significantly affected by the disqualification of two players from the main squad - the team's top scorer in the spring part of the season, Cristaldo, as well as Edmar. The Greeks, looking ahead, were unable to make up for the loss of Swedish defender Olav Mellberg, who also had too many cards.

Interestingly, Olympiacos scored at almost the same time as they did a month ago at home against Rubin.

After a cross from Jose Holebas, one of the Spanish players from Ernesto Valverde's team, Ivan Marcano, headed the ball into the goal of Vladimir Dislenkovich , who replaced Roman Goryainov in the goal compared to the first match. Following this, the goalkeeper corrected himself, coping with Rafik Dzhebbour's one-on-one situation. The guests could have completely buried all hopes for the quarter finals several more times in the half, when Papa Gueye made two terrible mistakes and the ball hit the post after a header from Vassilis Torossidis. In attack, just like “Rubin” in February in Piraeus, the Kharkovites showed nothing.

In the second half, Metalist got close to Balazs Medieri's goal for the first time 20 minutes after the restart of the game, when Taison, who was put forward at the forefront of the attack, hit the Hungarian goalkeeper from an acute angle. Soon Taison got into action - first, after his pass, Sebastian Blanco hit the Medieri goal post. Seven minutes later, the Brazilian passed to substitute Marko Devic, who was unable to shoot, and the shot of full-back Sergei Pshenichnykh was saved by the goalkeeper.

Towards the end of the second half, it seemed that Metalist would not be able to get out of a difficult situation - the guests had to score two goals to get ahead of the opponent in the number of goals scored on a foreign field.

1/8 finals. Return matches Manchester City - Sporting - 3:2 Goals: Aguero, 60, 82; Balotelli, 75 pen - Fernandez, 33; van Wolfswinkel, 40 First match: 0:1 Schalke - Twente - 4:1 Goals: Huntelaar, 29, 57-pen, 81; Jones, 71 - Janssen, 14 First match: 0:1 Besiktas - Atlético - 0:3 Goals: Lopez, 26; Falcao, 83; Salvio, 90 First match: 1:3

In addition, Devic missed a penalty after an opponent's handball in the penalty area. Moreover, the forward of the Ukrainian national team performed it in the style of Antonin Panenka, twisting the ball in the center of the goal, but the goalkeeper took the projectile. Three minutes later, Taison completed an assist, and visiting defender (!) Christian Villagra , on the verge of a foul, won the fight against Medieri, and sent the ball into the empty net. Devich scored the second goal, which was life-saving for Kharkov, four minutes before the end of regular time, and did it with his heel. Olympiacos, whose quarterfinals slipped away in this way, was unable to recoup.

"Gazeta.Ru" conducted an online broadcast of the match "Olympiacos" - "Metalist".

After Manchester United's relegation, City remained the only English club in the Europa League. Like the Mancunians, they had to improve the situation after a loss, albeit not so fatal, since City lost in Lisbon, and not on their own field. Fans in Manchester might have thought - if Chelsea, not in its best condition, managed to beat Napoli in the Champions League with the required score, then why are the “citizens” worse.

City should not have any problems with motivation - the team, unlike United, did not play in the Champions League final last year and should cling to any chance to shine in Europe in order to gain recognition. Even if in England Roberto Mancini's men are now fighting for the championship, this weekend they are playing against Chelsea.

City fans hoped that their team would not fall into decline after losing in the last round of the Premier League to Swansea.

Mancini, compared to the game in Wales, made one change in defense, replacing Gael Clichy with Aleksandar Kolarov. In the midfield, Gareth Barry, who was injured with Swansea, was replaced by David Pizarro , and Nigel Do Jong, Samir Nasri , as well as James Milner and Edina Dzeko remained in the reserves - Mancini apparently hoped to beat Sporting with little loss and save these players in front of “ Chelsea."

The guests apparently took advantage of the fact that there was no initial onslaught from Manchester City from the first minutes - the Lions players did a good job of delivering the ball into the opponent's penalty area, although this did not lead to anything dangerous. A good header was looming for the author of the only goal in the first match between the teams, defender Shandan, who, however, turned out to be inaccurate. And the first moment at the goal of Rui Patricio after David Silva's cross was a shot with the inside of the foot of Adam Johnson , who also missed.

Two standard positions turned out to be successful for Sporting, which, in an equal game, in general, with a slight advantage for the guests, decided the issue in the first half in favor of Sa Pinto’s players. First, Chilean midfielder Matias Fernandez , who minutes earlier received a card for artistry when falling in someone else’s penalty area, circled the “wall” with a cool free kick, sending the ball into the far corner of Joe Hart’s goal. The missed goal did not wake up City, although it now needed to score three goals. And after another 13 minutes, our Marat Izmailov fired a cross into the penalty area for Ricky van Wolfswinkel, who Zenit was supposedly interested in, and the Dutchman sent the ball under the crossbar.

All participants in the 1/4 finals Athletic (Spain) AZ (Netherlands) Valencia (Spain) Hannover (Germany) Sporting (Portugal) Atletico (Spain) Metalist (Ukraine) Schalke (Germany)

In the second 45 minutes, Mancini sent Dzeko and de Jong into battle. The Citizens stepped up their game, but scored only in the 60th minute, when Sporting's defense allowed Sergio Aguero to score the Lions' goal for the first time in this confrontation. The threat of conceding three more goals from City did not stop Sa Pinta, who removed from the game the scorers of both goals, as well as the experienced Diego Capel , a two-time UEFA Cup winner with Sevilla.

Sporting almost paid for this saving of effort - after an unobvious violation of the rule on Nasri, either in the penalty area or on its line, Balotelli converted a penalty.

And then the Argentine, after Dzeko's discount, brought his team ahead. The “citizens” had enough time to recoup, but the guests only had time to fight back. In the last 10-plus minutes, Balotelli's almost inaccurate header after Kolarov's cross was remembered, as well as the fatal miss of Joe Hart in the last seconds of added time, whose header slightly missed the far corner. City are also eliminated from European competition.

Gazeta.Ru conducted an online broadcast of the Manchester City – Sporting match.

Reached the quarter finals of Schalke, who repeated Bayern's feat in the Champions League. Like the Munich team, the club from Gelsenkirchen lost the first match to the Dutch Twente 0:1, and after 15 minutes of the return match they lost with the same score. Schalke was able to score the required three goals by the 71st minute, and the fourth, which completed the defeat, was scored by the author of the third hat-trick in this Europa League, Klas-Jan Huntelaar, who became the leader among the tournament's scorers. But Atlético, having won the first match at home against Besiktas, also played confidently away, scoring three unanswered goals against the Turkish club.

More materials can be viewed on the Europa League page.

"Metalist" escaped in Piraeus - Gazeta.Ru