Young Boys 2 - 0 Sparta Praha: Young Boys edge decisive clash
Posted Friday, December 12, 2014 by PA
Young Boys struck twice in the second-half of a tense contest to secure the win they needed, 2-0, to leapfrog Sparta Prague and qualify for the Europa League knock-out stages.
The two sides went into the contest knowing the victor would join Napoli in progressing through Group I - although a draw would have been good enough for the visitors.
But it was Guillaume Hoarau who made the difference as he won a late spot-kick having been fouled by Pavel Kaderabek - with the France international dusting himself off to score the penalty before Renato Steffen scored late on to seal the win for Uli Forte's side.
The hosts could have been ahead in the opening minute but Steffen could not hit the target with a close-range header.
Josef Husbauer passed up Sparta's best early opportunity before Young Boys' Japanese striker Yuya Kubo tested Marek Stech at the midway point of the first half.
Both Tomas Prikryl and Borek Dockal had chances for Sparta before Stech was once again on hand to prevent Kubo opening the scoring.
Ladislav Krejci forced a great save out of Landry Mvogo whilst Stech was at it again at the start of the second half as he managed to tip Hoarau's header behind for a corner as the hosts looked for the vital breakthrough.
It was Lukas Marecek who then came close for Sparta but the pivotal first goal came on 76 minutes as Kaderabek brought down Hoarau, who fired home the resulting penalty to put Young Boys in front.
Sparta pushed forward in search on the equaliser which would have been enough to see them advance without ever truly testing Landry Mvogo.
And the game, as well as progression in the competition, was sewn up in the dying moments as Steffen led a counter-attack that ended with the Seiss winger finishing the move off.
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