Aston Villa, Fiorentina through to Conference League semifinals
Aston Villa are through to the semifinals of the UEFA Europa Conference League after the Villans defeated French side Lille on penalties at the Pierre-Mauroy Stadium in France on Thursday.
The English side defeated Lille 2-1 at Villa Park last week, but Lille were able to match the score line in the second leg, making it 3-3 on aggregate to send the game into extra time after 90 minutes of normal time.
Fifteen minutes into the game, Yusuf Yazici opened the scoring for Lille with a powerful left-footed shot from the centre of the box into the bottom left corner, and Benjamin André doubled the lead for the hosts in the 68th minute.
Defender Marty Cash scored for Aston Villa from a right-footed shot outside the box area three minutes from normal time, rescuing the visitors from crashing out as the game went into extra time.
The extra 30 minutes produced no goal from either side but Aston Villa went ahead to secure the semifinal spot in shootout after Nabi Bentaleb and André missed for Lille while Leon Bailey was Villa’s only miss.
Aston Villa will face the winner of the quarter-final clash between Olympiacos and Fenerbahce for a place in this year’s Conference League final.
Meanwhile, Italian side Fiorentina are also through to the semifinals of the Conference League following a 2-0 win over Czech side Viktoria Plzen in Italy on Thursday night.
The first leg ended goalless in Czech last week but Fiorentina were able to secure the needed victory in their home to reach the last four of the tournament.
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