Dutchman Verbruggen Anderlecht’s penalty hero, Di María shines at Juve | Football

Feb 23, 2023 at 8:42 PMUpdate: 2 minutes ago

The Dutch keeper Bart Verbruggen performed a heroic role for Anderlecht in the intermediate round of the Conference League on Thursday. He helped his team further with three stopped bets in the penalty shootout. In the intermediate round of the Europa League, the spotlight was on Ángel Di María, who scored a hat-trick for Juventus.

Anderlecht won 2-1 at home against Ludogorets, after losing 1-0 in Bulgaria last week. No goals were scored in extra time, after which penalties had to make the decision.

Verbruggen became the hero. The twenty-year-old Dutchman took the first three penalties and saw three teammates score, including former Ajax player Jan Vertonghen.

Verbruggen made the switch to Anderlecht 2.5 years ago at the age of eighteen. He has been in the base at the Belgian top club since the end of 2022, where he played captain Hendrik Van Crombrugge out of the team.

In addition to Anderlecht, Lazio, AEK Larnaca, Sheriff Tiraspol, FC Basel, Fiorentina and Lech Poznan also qualified for the eighth finals of the Conference League.

View the results and the program in the Conference League

Di María excels in Nantes

In the Europa League, Di María led his team Juventus with a hat-trick past FC Nantes: 0-3. The Argentinian world champion quickly asserted himself by surprising keeper Alban Lafont with a beautifully viewed shot in the far corner.

Fifteen minutes later, he also made it 0-2 by convincingly using a penalty. The penalty kick was awarded after a handball by Nantes player Nicolas Pallois, who received a red card.

In the final phase, Di María also determined the final score. His effort turned out to be turned behind the line by keeper Lafont. The victory was more than enough for Juve after last week’s 1-1 in Turin.

The victory is a boost for Juventus, which is also experiencing a poor season. Partly due to a points penalty for financial fraud, ‘De Oude Dame’ is only seventh in the competition.

Jeremiah St. Juste had a great evening with Sporting CP. Photo: AFP

Also Sporting and Leverkusen through

Sporting CP won 0-4 against FC Midtjylland through goals from Pedro Gonçalves (two), Sebastián Coates and Stefan Gartenmann (own goal). The team of base customer Jeremiah St. Juste had drawn 1-1 at home and is therefore also through in the Europa League.

Sporting’s victory is important for the battle between Portugal and the Netherlands for sixth place in the coefficient ranking. The Netherlands is still in an excellent position in the race for two direct Champions League tickets in the 2024/2025 season.

At AS Monaco-Bayer Leverkusen, the final score was 2-3, just like last week. In the end, Leverkusen, which played with Jeremie Frimpong and Mitchel Bakker in the starting line-up, took the penalty kicks just a little better. Only Eliot Matazo missed for substitute Myron Boadu’s Monaco.

Europa League results

FC Midtjylland-Sporting CP* 0-4 AS Monaco-Bayer Leverkusen* 2-3 FC Nantes-Juventus* 0-3 PSV-Sevilla* 2-0 AS Roma*-Red Bull Salzburg 2-0 Manchester United*-FC Barcelona 2 -1 Stade Rennais-Shakhtar Donetsk* 2-1 Union Berlin*-Ajax 3-1

View the results and the program in the Europa League

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