Friday, April 21, 2017

EUROPA DRAW: Man. Utd. Get Celta Vigo And Ajax Welcome Lyon

Manchester United will travel away to Balaidos Vigo home of Celta Vigo for the first legs of the semi-final come May 4th while Ajax hosts Lyon same day before return a week later for reverse fixtures.

A-Marcus Rashford second half extra goal put United to dream of next season Champions League Group Stage visible that is further progress in next round to win Europa Trophy. Henrikh Mkhitaryan broke the deadlock and Sofiane Hanni later equalised for the Belgian visitors, before the Reds dominated the tie but could not find a breakthrough in normal time with Rashford and Ibrahimovic missing chances upon chances. Rashford later rise to the occasion by netting in the 109th minute of extra time to secure a place in Friday’s semi-final draw in Nyon, Switzerland and wrapping up a 3 - 2 aggregate.

Jose Mourinho's side lost two players in the quarter-final victory were the injuries suffered by Marcos Rojo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who were both forced to leave the action.

Celta Vigo on the other side got better of Belgium's side Genk 4 - 3 on aggregates after drawing 1-1 in the second leg in Belgium following a 3 - 2 win in the first leg in Spain.

Celta v Man. United
First meeting for these sides - though United's Zlatan Ibrahimović scored against Celta in Europe as an Ajax player. Celta also have a notable Old Trafford old boy; US-born Italy striker Giuseppe Rossi was on the Red Devils' books from 2004-07, scoring once in five league appearances. Celta's John Guidetti will know his way round Man. United's home city; he was on the books at Manchester City from 2008-15.

United have won only one of their last eight meetings against Spanish clubs, drawing three and losing four. That run includes the 3-1 defeat by Barcelona in the 2011 UEFA Champions League final.



Manchester United's record against Spanish sides is W12 D19 L16. United have won two of their three European semi-finals against Spanish opposition, all in the European Cup. Most recently they beat Barcelona in 2007/08 (0-0 a, 1-0 h), also getting the better of Real Madrid in 1967/68 (1-0 h, 3-3 a) - going on to win the trophy in both of those seasons.

United also lost to Madrid in the 1956/57 European Cup semi-finals (1-3 a, 2-2 h).

Celta's record against English clubs is W5 D0 L4, although they have lost their last three games - against Arsenal in the 2003/04 UEFA Champions League round of 16 (2-3 h, 0-2 a) and Newcastle in the 2006/07 UEFA Cup group stage (1-2 a).

That first-leg defeat against Arsenal in 2004 ended a run of five successive victories against Premier League opposition, home and away.

Celta have played English opposition in a European semi-final before, beating Aston Villa in the 2000 UEFA Intertoto Cup (1-0 h, 2-1 a).


Ajax v Lyon!
The sides have met four times in Europe before, Ajax winning two and drawing two. Ajax and Lyon's four previous meetings all came in the UEFA Champions League group stage. The Dutch side won home (2-1) and away (2-0) in the first group stage in 2001/02, before two 0-0 draws in 2011/12.

Ajax got better of Schalke in the quarter-final with a 4 - 3 aggregate win after extra-time. In Amsterdam Arena, Ajax came on top with 2 - 0 last week then travel to Arena AufSchalke Gelsenkirchen to lost 3 - 2 with a man down right from the full 90th-minute only to come back in a fashion that proved that they are one of the european elites with two-goals in extra-time to edged out the German 

For Lyon, it took through penalties to edged out Besiktas after playing same scoreline home and away, it end 7 - 6 on penalties at Besiktas Arena, Instabul in front of the home fans.

Lyon have already enjoyed considerable success against Dutch opposition this season,  overwhelming AZ Alkmaar in the round of 32 (4-1 a, 7-1 h).

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