• Europa League round-up

Chelsea through, Toon and ten-man Spurs crash out

ESPN staff
April 11, 2013


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Chelsea advanced through to the Europa League semi-final on aggregate following a 3-2 loss to Rubin Kazan on a night which saw Tottenham suffer defeat to FC Basel on penalties, while Newcastle's hopes were ended by Benfica in a 1-1 draw.

Fernando Torres' Europa League hot streak continued as Chelsea advanced to the semi-finals despite a 3-2 defeat in their quarter-final second leg with Rubin Kazan at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, winning 5-4 on aggregate.

Torres, who scored twice in the 3-1 first-leg win, struck his 19th of the season after four minutes with a cute lobbed finish, but thereafter Chelsea endured a difficult evening on the synthetic surface.

Three goals in 13 second-half minutes, two of them for Rubin, had Chelsea worried, as Ivan Marcano and Gokdeniz Karadeniz scored headers either side of Victor Moses' curled effort.

Bebras Natcho's 75th-minute penalty led to an anxious conclusion, but Chelsea held on to advance to Friday's semi-final draw.

Manchester City are next for the Blues in Sunday's FA Cup semi-final and there will be changes for Wembley, where an improvement is required if the Londoners are to continue their trophy defence.

Chelsea captain John Terry was far from his best on a collectively shaky defensive display against inspired opponents in their temporary home, but it was an altogether unconvincing display from the visitors.

Clint Dempsey scored twice, but Tottenham crashed out on penalties in Switzerland © Getty Images
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Tottenham's rollercoaster ride in the Europa League came to a dramatic end tonight as they suffered penalty shoot-out heartbreak against Basel.

Clint Dempsey put Spurs ahead, before Mohamed Salah and Aleksandr Dragovic scored to put Basel on course for victory.

Dempsey took the tie to extra-time with just eight minutes of normal time remaining - but Tottenham's task was then made much harder by the injury-time dismissal of Jan Vertonghen.

Basel threw everything at the Londoners in extra-time, but they could not find a way through and the game went to penalties.

Tottenham had not won a penalty shoot-out since 1994, and it showed.Tom Huddlestone and Emmanuel Adebayor both missed from the spot while Basel converted all four of their efforts to send Andre Villas-Boas' team crashing out of the competition.

Papiss Cisse gave Newcastle the lead before a late Benfica goal meant Europa League exit © AP
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Eduardo Salvio ended Newcastle's hopes of continuing their European adventure as Benfica struck deep into injury time to prevent another late show.

The Magpies were leading 1-0 on the night and pushing for the second goal which would have booked them a semi-final place when the midfielder slid home substitute Rodrigo's low cross to secure a 4-2 aggregate victory.

Papiss Cisse, who had earlier seen two efforts ruled out for offside, had set up a grandstand finish with a 71st-minute header, his fifth goal in seven games.

However, when the decisive moment came, it was at the wrong end for the home side. Newcastle, who were applauded from the pitch by a crowd of 52,157, will now turn their attention to Sunday's derby clash with Sunderland.

Elsewhere, Fenerbahce held off a determined Lazio to progress to the semi-final, drawing 1-1 at the Stadio Olimpico.

Senad Lulic opened the scoring for Lazio, but Caner Erkin equalised for the Turkish side to put them through.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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