Sarr’s team makes it to the UEFA Europa League Final

Recently, we reflected on Bouna Sarr’s decision to reject Senegal for France. Today we look at his performance in a UEFA Europa League semifinal clash with RB Salzburg. The Marseille right-back was present and ever ready to pitch himself to Didier Deschamps, the French national team coach, as he represented his club in a competitive tournament. He was part of the team that won the first leg 2-0 and was hoping to replicate that kind of performance today. Marseille were rock solid at the back today thanks to Sarr and his teammates but the second half was a bit challenging for Marseille.

Amadou Haidara from Mali started off a Salzburg comeback by scoring from an amazing run that saw him finish past Pele after flying past 6 players. 1-0 at 53 minutes and Salzburg became dangerous. It was not long until they piled more pressure on Marseille for the second. This time, it was Bouna Sarr who was unlucky to score an own goal in the 65th minute. The scoreline was 2-0 at the end of the 90 minutes which meant that the tie was level on aggregate 2-2 so it needed to be settled in extra-time or eventually penalties if no team had scored. Lucky enough, the former happened as substitute Rolando came on to volley home from a corner kick in the 115th minute. Salzburg were gutted by this blow and did not make a difference in the end as the aforementioned Mali player got sent off. Marseille are through to the final thanks to Rolando’s goal. Another African born player who plays for Portugal.

The week of unexpected comebacks provides another thriller in Salzburg vs Lazio clash

Immobile and Lazio lose to Salzburg in the Europa League

This week proved to be a week of miracle returns as Roma sparked hope in all the teams in hope by coming back from 4-1 down to beat Barcelona 3-0 at home. What an exciting match it was and it caused a ripple effect in the world of football. Every team that was on the losing end in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League felt that they could believe just like Roma and turn around the tie to progress to the next round. Juventus tried it and came close but their dreams were crushed by Ronaldo’s last minute penalty. It did not end there as the Europa League teams were also inspired and CSKA Moscow almost ran away with but eventually went out. The same cannot be said though about RB Salzburg who came back from 4-2 defeat and beat Lazio by 4-1. Here’s how it unfolded. The Austrian side, Salzburg, started the match with an expected high intensity and were hungry for scoring many goals in the match and they nearly scored in just 5 minutes. Ciro Immobile got a chance that he should have buried in the first half which would have given Lazio the advantage when he shot straight at the goalkeeper from close range. There were no goals in the first period before Immobile made amends of his earlier attempt by rocketing a shot on the 55th minute. This seemed like it added fuel to the fire as RB Salzburg scored to level the matters just 85 seconds later when Dabbur danced around the Italian side’s defenders before and his shot was turned in by Stefan Radu. Luis Alberto will probably have a nightmare tonight when he reflects about the game as he missed a 3-on-1 opportunity on the 72nd minute which would have dashed the Austrian side’s hopes. Haidara then took a 30-yard effort that flew past Strakosha which made it 2-1 to Salzburg. Hwang Hee-Chan scored the third from a deflection which meant that both teams were level on aggregate but RB Salzburg had the advantage on away goals rule. They did not want to rely on that as Stefan Lainer made sure that Lazio would go home by scoring the fourth goal which saw Lazio lose 4-1. This means that the Italian club are out of the competition which is disappointing.