Juventus meets Sevilla in Europa League semi-final

Before the ball rolled, Juventus received good news when the penalty of deducting 15 points in Serie A was revoked pending a new trial. Thanks to that, "The old lady" returned to third place with 59 points, even having the opportunity to race for the championship with Napoli. They are currently 16 points behind the first place, while the season has eight rounds left.

The good news from home is a push to help Juventus start jubilantly at Jose Alvalade Stadium. In the 8th minute, Federico Chiesa's corner kick created a mess in the penalty area, and Adrien Rabiot quickly finished the left foot from near the goal to open the scoring. It was Rabiot's 11th goal in all competitions this season, the best stat among Serie A midfielders.

Less than ten minutes later, the French midfielder himself fouled Manuel Ugarte in the box and cost Juventus a penalty. On the 11m mark, Marcus Edwards shot into the middle, while goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny poured to the left.

After that, the game was even when both teams created good chances. On the Juventus side, Dusan Vlahovic was squandering with an inaccurate near-field header in the 55th minute and a buffer over the bar a few minutes later.

Meanwhile, Sporting created suffocating pressure at the end of the game. In the 88th minute, Edwards put the ball in smoothly, but Sebastian Coates shot into the sky from just 5m away. Two minutes later, Coates had another chance inside the box, but he crossed instead of finishing himself, and was saved by Alex Sandro.

"What a wonderful day," said Allegri, laughing on Sky Sport Italy. "This is the day we won back 15 points, and now we need to return to Serie A because we have lost so many points in the past games. We have to consolidate fourth place."

Technically, the Italian coach assessed that Juventus had a good performance, especially in the second half, but needed to improve the finishing stage to soon end the match. Allegri also admitted "The old lady" was lucky when Sporting squandered late-match opportunities.

Overcoming Sporting, Juventus will meet Sevilla - the club crushed Man Utd 3-0 at the same time to enter the semi-finals with a total score of 4-1. Allegri said that Sevilla is very strong and has a lot of experience in the Europa League. Sevilla is the most successful team in Europa League history with six championships in 2006, 2007, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2020.

Juventus reached the semi-finals of UEFA's major tournaments for the 22nd time, more than any Italian club. This achievement of Juventus is only behind Real Madrid (37), Bayern Munich (28) and Barca (26). The Europa League semi-final first leg will take place in Turin on May 11, and the return leg will take place in Spain a week later.

Ahead of Juventus are two difficult matches, when they take the top of the Napoli group in the 31st round of Serie A on April 23 and then become a guest of Inter in the semi-final second leg of the Italian Cup on April 26. The first leg at the beginning of the month ended with a score of 1-1.