Sevilla likely to advance to final; Napoli face daunting test in Kiev
LONDON --
The Europa League is becoming a competition for specialists. Sevilla, 3-0 up from the first leg of its semifinal against Fiorentina, look set for a fourth final in 10 seasons when travel to Italy on Thursday night (live, FOX Sports 2, FOX Sports Go, 3:05 p.m. ET) -- and, having won the previous three could become the most successful team in the competition's history -- In the other semi, meanwhile, Rafa Benitez is again looking to the Europa League for salvation and could become the first coach to win the competition with three different teams.
Benitez's Napoli, though, is in trouble. It drew the home leg of its semifinal against Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk 1-1 and faces a daunting test now in Kiev (live, Thursday, FOX Soccer Plus, FOX Sports Go, 3:05 p.m. ET). There have been reports that he is relocating his family from England to Italy, suggesting he will sign the new deal he's been offered by Napoli to stay at the club after his contract expires at the end of the season, but he continues to be linked both with replacing Sam Allardyce at West Ham and with an interim role at Manchester City to take over from Manuel Pellegrini until Josep Guardiola is potentially available in summer 2016.
Although the club president Aurelio de Laurentiis is apparently keen for Benitez to stay, elimination from the Europa League would make this feel like a season of, at best, treading water. A spurt of 13 points from the last six games should ensure it finishes fourth, but Lazio, in the third and final UEFA Champions League qualifying slot, is three points clear with three games remaining.
Saturday's 2-2 draw with doomed Parma didn't suggest a team in the best of form. A furious Benitez picked up a one-game touchline ban after proclaiming, "This is Italian football," at the final whistle, his unhappiness with the refereeing leading him to imply corruption. The center-forward Gonzalo Higuain was also sanctioned, fined €10,000 for calling the Parma players "failures."
While Napoli grouches along with a sense that it ought to be making the final, Dnipro seems gleefully surprised just to be playing in the semifinal -- it's best performance in European competition. "Nobody backed us, it's surprised everyone we've come this far," said the forward Yevhen Seleznyov, who scored Dnipro's goal (which looked offside) in the first leg. "All of us understand what we are playing for. This club is unique. We have great fans and the city of Dnipropetrovsk loves football. We've been playing together for a while now and we've always had great team spirit -- I think that is the main reason for our success."
Seleznyov was signed from Shakhtar Donetsk, with whom he won the Europa League in 2009, but 12 of the Dnipro squad came through its impressive academy, most notably the winger Yevhen Konoplyanka, who scored the decisive goal away to Ajax and looks likely to join either Tottenham Hotspur or Liverpool when his contract expires in the summer. This run is vindication for a policy the club put in place more than a decade ago, realizing it couldn't compete financially with Dynamo Kyiv or Shakhtar and so invested in its academy.
Dnipro has proved itself a tough, intelligent side, the Brazilian Douglas marshalling the defense in front of a top-class goalkeeper in Denys Boyko. It's scored only 12 goals since the start of the group stage -- that's fewer than a goal a game -- but it has won its last four home European ties without conceding a goal.
"It will be tough," said Benitez. "It will be difficult but we are confident that if we create chances we will score goals. We won 4-1 against Wolfsburg away so I think we can do the same."
His side, like Dnipro, is probably at its most effective playing on the break, but the problem on Thursday is likely to be that there is little incentive for Dnipro, with the away goal, to come out and attack. It can sit back and look to absorb pressure, as it has done throughout the knockout stage, and strike through Seleznyov and Konoplyanka on the break.
"We can go to Kiev and win," Benitez went on. "In the first half [of the first leg] we did not attack with depth but were much better in the second half and we can play a game like that, even away form home. Dnipro was organised and they did not give much but we wasted our chances."
