Only 23 months after bordering on relegation one season after another, the team today reached the round of 16 of the Europa League for the first time since 2017, the year in which the continental dream died at Old Trafford in the semifinals against José Mourinho’s United. With five starting youth players, the Vigo club knocked down PAOK in Balaídos tonight with a goal from Swedberg where no one had won for more than a year. In the next round, yes, much, much greater heights await: Unai Emery’s Aston Villa or Olympique Lyon.
1
Ionut Radu, Carl Starfelt, Javi Rodríguez, Marcos Alonso (Carlos Domínguez, min. 88), Javi Rueda, Sergio Carreira, Ilaix Moriba (Miguel Román, min. 45), Matías Vecino, Borja Iglesias (Fer López, min. 76), Iago Aspas (Ferran Jutglà, min. 66) and Williot Swedberg (Jones El Abdellaoui, min. 76)
0
Antonis Tsiftsis, Abdul Baba, Giannis Michailidis, Tomasz Kedziora, Jonjoe Kenny, Jorge Sánchez, Alessandro Bianco (Mady Camara, min. 63), Christos Zafeiris, Dimitrios Chatsidis (Greg Taylor, min. 73), Magomed Ozdoev y Giorgos Giakoumakis (Alexander Jeremejeff, min. 79)
Goals
1-0 min. 62: Williot Swedberg
Referee Marco Guida
yellow cards
Moriba Kourouma – The Best of Moriba Kourouma
With the lead from the first leg, Giráldez gave a rest in the midfield to Miguel Román, the most inspired footballer on the pitch in Greece, and formed with Ilaix and Matías Vecino in the engine room for the first time since the Uruguayan midfielder’s arrival in winter. The team amassed a lot of possession in the staging, but circulation was as slow as it was predictable. Marcos Alonso, Starfelt and Javi Rodríguez connected with Rueda and especially with Carreira in the lanes, but there was no news of life for Aspas, Swedberg and Borja Iglesias, the offensive trident.
The blue plays died when the ball reached the final third. PAOK, with nine casualties but with their striker Giakoumakis back in the eleven, alternated stretches in which they were trapped in the Tsiftsis area and others in which they dared to go out and press high. The clash was structured from Celta’s circulation. The Vigo team carried the weight of the match while their rival hid waiting to find a counterattack. Razvan Lucescu’s team only came close to Radu’s goal from a dead ball. Michailidis headed two crosses wide and Giakoumakis missed a shot in which the referee signaled a previous foul on the Romanian goalkeeper.
In that pasty mess in which the meeting was transformed with the two teams without wanting to take many risks, Apas let out two flashes. First he moved into space to receive a delivery from Rueda, he stopped suddenly and assisted Vecino from behind. The Uruguayan’s shot went past Tsiftsis’s right post. A few minutes later, with Celta focused on the Greek area, he found a gap that seemed not to exist through which he illuminated a pass to Swedberg, who with the mark on him could not define.
The pasty mass of the first half died without the goalkeepers even making a stop. Giráldez brought Miguel Román on at half-time to give the group more associative capacity and retired Ilaix, who had a card. The consequences of the change were instantaneous. A change of orientation put Rueda in flight on the right lane and Tsiftsis sent Borja Iglesias’ poisonous shot for a corner after the winger’s back pass. Román weaved and weaved in the midfield until a combination started by him ended in Swedberg’s goal after Carreira braided with the Panda.
The Galicians found themselves with more and more spaces to run while and El Abdellaoui. The group did not score the second goal, but the club, which has already pocketed almost 17 million euros so far in the Europa League and is sixth in the League, returns to the round of 16 of the tournament nine seasons after the hand of Giráldez.
