Sevilla 1 - 0 Juventus: Sevilla secure Europea League spot after Fernando Llorente winner

Posted Wednesday, December 09, 2015 by PA

Sevilla will try to defend their Europa League crown after a 1-0 home win over Juventus secured them third place in Champions League Group D.

Fernando Llorente scored the only goal of the game against his former club, who finish second in the standings after Manchester City came from behind to beat Borussia Monchengladbach 4-2 in the other match.

Sevilla, Europa League winners for the past two seasons, had to win and hope the German club didn't take all three points at the Etihad Stadium. They did it but had goalkeeper Gonzalez Sergio Rico to thanks for a brilliant injury-time save.

Sevilla started well but the early chances went the way of Juventus with Alvaro Morata twice nearly scoring.

At the other end, Yevhen Konoplyanka worked Gianluigi Buffon with a long-range effort but the visitors should have gone ahead in the 25th minute but once more Morata missed the target.

There was an ebb and flow to the match and Buffon kept out a Llorente header before Rico reacted well to push away Paulo Dybala's free-kick just before half-time.

Buffon made a fine double save to thwart Ever Banega and then Konoplyanka on the hour mark but he was beaten five minutes later when Llorente struck against the club he left during the summer.

The Spaniard got the better of Andrea Barzagli to meet Konoplyanka's corner, before guiding his header into the net.

As news of Manchester City taking the lead filtered through, Sevilla's joy almost turned to despair as Dybala crashed a shot against the crossbar with less than 10 minutes of normal time remaining.

Rico preserved Sevilla's lead in injury time with a brilliant block to deny substitute Juan Cuadrado after the on-loan Chelsea winger was set up by Morata.