Martínez Shines In Penalty Shootout As Villa Reaches Europa Conference League Semis. Fiorentina Wins – News18

Emiliano Martínez saved two spot kicks and Douglas Luiz converted the decisive penalty for Aston Villa to prevail 4-3 in a shootout over Lille and advance to the Europa Conference League semifinals Thursday.

After Villa won the first leg of their quarterfinals 2-1 last week, Yusuf Yazıcı and Benjamin André scored in each half for Lille’s 2-0 lead before defender Matty Cash’s 87th-minute goal evened the aggregate score 3-3 to force extra time.

Villa is into its first European semifinal since 1982 and will face either Fenerbahce or Olympiakos for a spot in the May 29 final in Athens.

Fiorentina, last year’s runnerup, also reached the semifinals after Nicolás González and Cristiano Biraghi both scored in extra time to edge 10-man Viktoria Plzeň 2-0 in the second leg. The opening leg was a goalless draw. The Italian team will face either PAOK or Club Brugge. Plzeň’s Brazilian midfielder Cadu received a red card in the 66th minute.

The four Europa League second-leg quarterfinals were later Thursday with Liverpool needing to overcome a three-goal deficit at Atalanta.

West Ham was hosting the new Bundesliga champion Bayer Leverkusen after losing 2-0 in Germany while Roma has a 1-0 advantage in an all-Italian matchup against AC Milan. Benfica plays at Marseille with a 2-1 advantage.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – Associated Press)