Jose Mourinho will have a chance to claim a sixth European trophy, although his Roma team will have to stop Sevilla from winning a record-extending seventh Europa League title.
Roma reached the Europa League final by holding Bayer Leverkusen to a 0-0 draw in Germany on Thursday following the kind of disciplined defensive performance that Mourinho’s teams have become known for. The Italian team went through 1-0 on aggregate after winning the first leg of the semi-final at home.
Roma will face six-time champion Sevilla, which knocked out Juventus with a 2-1 win after extra time to prevent an all-Italian final.
The final takes place on May 31 in the Hungarian capital of Budapest.
Leverkusen forward Moussa Diaby hit the crossbar early and Roma goalkeeper Rui Patricio was busy at times but Roma’s defence held firm, despite the team rarely venturing forward and managing just one effort on goal in the entire game.
Jose Mourinho is looking for back-to-back European titles with Roma after winning the inaugural edition of the Europa Conference League last season. He has won the Europa League – or UEFA Cup as it was previously known – with both Porto and Manchester United and also has two Champions League titles.
Winning the Europa League could also be the only chance for Roma to qualify for next season’s Champions League.
Sevilla trailed 1-0 at home in the second half but substitute Erik Lamela set up the equalizer that forced extra time and then headed in the winner in the 95th minute at the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan stadium.
After the two teams drew 1-1 in Torino last week, substitute striker Dusan Vlahovic gave Juventus the lead in the 65th with a precise chip from inside the area.
Suso, another substitute, scored the equalizer with a long-range effort seven minutes later.
Sevilla defender Marcos Acuna was sent off after picking up his second yellow card five minutes before the final whistle.
Sevilla hopes to salvage a turbulent season with a seventh triumph in the second-tier European competition.
It sits just 10th in the Spanish league but has once again showed that it thrives in Europe, knocking out Manchester United in the quarter-finals.
Sevilla won the trophy six times between 2006-20.
Europa Conference League
Substitute Pablo Fornals scored deep into stoppage time for West Ham to beat AZ in Alkmaar 1-0 in the second leg of the Europa Conference League semi-finals and send the Premier League club to a European final for the first time in 47 years. Fornals seized the ball in the middle of the field and finished his run with a low shot from the edge of the area for the Hammers to advance 3-1 on aggregate. West Ham will face Fiorentina in the final that takes place in Prague on June 7. The Hammers have been waiting for a European trophy since the 1965 title in the European Cup Winners’ Cup and reached the final in the same competition again in 1976. Fiorentina also needed extra time to advance, with substitute midfielder Antonin Barak netting the decisive goal in the 129th minute to secure a 3-1 win at Basel. Fiorentina’s win means Italy has a team in the final of all three UEFA competitions, with Inter Milan facing Manchester City in the Champions League title match.
Newcastle one win away from the Champions League
NEWCASTLE, England Newcastle is one win away from a return to the Champions League. The Saudi-controlled club beat Brighton 4-1 on Thursday to strengthen its hold on third place in the Premier League. Three more points will guarantee Newcastle a top-four finish and an automatic spot in the Champions League, a competition the club last played in 20 years ago. The team’s remaining games are at home to next-to-last Leicester and away to Chelsea. The loss for sixth-place Brighton all but ended its top-four hopes, leaving Roberto De Zerbi’s team to focus on finishing in fifth or sixth place and getting into the Europa League. Newcastle’s players might have already done enough to secure a place in the Champions League qualification places. Liverpool is four points back in fifth place and the only team that can stop them, but likely needs to beat Aston Villa and Southampton in its two remaining games just to stand a chance.
Sheffield Wednesday pulls off stunning comeback
SHEFFIELD, England Sheffield Wednesday pulled off the biggest comeback in the history of the English league playoffs to keep alive its hopes of a return to the second-tier Championship. Wednesday recovered from a 4-0 loss to Peterborough in the first leg of the third-tier League One playoff semi-final by winning the return match 5-1 after extra time, and then the penalty shootout 5-3 at Hillsborough on Thursday. No team had ever come back from a four-goal deficit from the first leg since the playoffs were introduced in 1987. The previous biggest comeback in the playoffs was from two goals behind. Wednesday scored in the eighth minute of second-half stoppage time to take the game to extra time at 4-4 on aggregate. Wednesday will play either Bolton or Barnsley in the final at Wembley Stadium on May 29.