Sevilla freezes in Salzburg

In a night of dogs due to the freezing temperatures and under a deathly silence in the stands, empty by the havoc that the coronavirus pandemic is causing in Austria, Sevilla said goodbye to the Champions League with a hard defeat against Salzburg and will have to play the ‘playoff’ for access to the second round of the Europa League, his favorite competition.

Julen Lopetegui’s team, hit by the loss of sensitive pieces, but penalized above all by their lack of punch and a couple of indiscretions by Montiel and Jordán, was unable to achieve the victory they needed to be in the game for the sixth time in their history. the first round of qualifying rounds of the main continental tournament, in which instead the Central European team will debut, second in a group that arrived on the last day with everything open and one of the possible rivals, therefore, of Real Madrid in the raffle to be held next Monday in the Swiss town of Nyon.

Lopetegui’s obsession was to short-circuit Salzburg’s transitions. The team from the Red Bull factory boasts of having the lowest average age in the Champions League and flies on the run with its lush squad. That is why he took extreme vigilance and envied Munir as a spearhead to the detriment of Rafa Mir for the Moroccan international to help contain the rapid departures of the Austrian team. The plan was effective in the first half because the locals barely had poisonous arrivals, beyond Sucic’s shot that came out licking the stick, but collapsed in the second period due to an error that sent him to purgatory.

Despite the fact that the round trip that Salzburg likes so much seemed fertile ground for Ocampos and Papu Gómez to find spaces to unbalance on the wing, it was difficult for Sevilla to generate chances because they are not comfortable in disorderly crashes. Rakitic finished off one of the few visitors’ approaches before the break after a good combination between Ocampos and Munir, but the Croatian’s shot was too tame to make Köhn uncomfortable. Although it was Koundé, with a deflected header at the exit of a corner, who was closest to allowing Sevilla to leave with an advantage for the sandwich.

Adeyemi, decisive

He tightened the clock and Sevilla returned from the booth with more push. He was about to immediately harvest the fruits. Rakitic prolonged a tense center from Montiel from the right and Munir holed with a point-blank header that crashed into the crossbar. There the dream disappeared. He forgave the Andalusian team and paid it in a row. A loss of Montiel in the medulla condemned him. Salzburg took advantage of it to launch Adeyemi on the left wing, who surpassed Ocampos and filtered into the area for Okafor to impale the net.

Lopetegui had no choice but to gamble. The Basque coach put Rafa Mir in for Augustinsson to raise the offensive power, reconfiguring the system with three centrals, two forwards and Papu Gómez as a hitch, his ideal position. But any hope of a comeback finally fell apart when Jordán, who was already booked, stopped a counter led by Adeyemi for a foul and saw the second yellow.

The Teuton, author of 15 goals in 27 games so far this season and sought by the greats of Europe such as the new Haaland, did not score this time but, as in Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán, where he caused three penalties, he was decisive in the two actions that defined a match in which neither football nor luck accompanied a Seville that froze.