Sevilla sent Manchester United crashing out of the Europa League thanks to an emphatic 3-0 win in Thursday’s quarterfinal second leg at the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan to seal a 5-2 aggregate triumph.
Sevilla, who had been 2-0 down before a late fight back to level last week’s first leg, stunned the Premier League giants, who were again masters of their own downfall in an error-strewn performance.
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Youssef En-Nesyri capitalised on a Harry Maguire mistake to go in front in the tie after eight minutes before Loic Bade headed in a corner two minutes into the second half.
Completing United’s misery, David de Gea badly miscontrolled a long ball as he ran out of his box to gift an open goal for En-Nesyri to put the result beyond doubt with nine minutes remaining.
Despite a poor domestic season that has led them to change manager twice, the win continues Sevilla’s remarkable history in the Europa League, having won six titles and four in the last nine seasons. They will now face Juventus in the semifinals.
“I have never seen an atmosphere like this in my entire life,” En Nesyri told Movistar Plus.
“I am very happy for the two goals and for the fans who supported us until the end.
“We have to stay together, with the fans, because that’s how we’ll go far.”
Man United, meanwhile, have seen their hopes of a treble of trophies this season disappear. Winners of the Carabao Cup in February, Erik ten Hag’s side will now have to pick themselves up quickly for Sunday’s FA Cup semifinal against Brighton at Wembley.
“We have to do better, that’s the demand,” Ten Hag told BT Sport.
“We were not composed, not calm. We didn’t beat the press, when you do there are so many spaces behind, and it was obvious at the start how to do it.
“We lost the battles, they had more passion, more desire, more willingness. This was a great opportunity, a great occasion, to win something and we gave it away — we have to blame ourselves. It’s gone, we can’t change it.”
Such an outcome seemed hard to imagine when Man United were in control and seeking a third goal to kill off the quarterfinal tie at Old Trafford. But not only did United concede two late own goals in the first leg, they also lost first-choice centre-backs Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martinez to injury as well as midfielder Bruno Fernandes to suspension.
Those absences were glaring from early on in Seville as United produced a performance desperately out of keeping with their season of rejuvenation under Ten Hag.
Spurred on by incredible home support throughout, Sevilla took less than 10 minutes to go in front.
Maguire, scorer of an own goal in the first leg, received a pass back from De Gea under pressure but should still have done far better than to pass it straight against Sevilla forward Erik Lamela. From there the ball fell kindly into the path of En-Nesyri, who easily beat the United keeper.
Sevilla wasted several chances and Lucas Ocampos had a goal ruled out by VAR due to offside in the build-up shortly before half-time.
Ten Hag brought on Marcus Rashford and Luke Shaw as half-time substitutes but straight after the interval Sevilla defender Bade scored with a towering header from an Ivan Rakitic corner that went in off the crossbar.
En Nesyri wrapped up the win in the 81st minute after United goalkeeper David De Gea failed to deal with a long ball over the top and the Morocco striker finished well to move the Spanish side closer to a record-extending seventh victory in the competition.
Information from Reuters was used in this report.
