Sporting come from behind to beat Bilbao
Reuters - Thursday 19 April 2012, 21:27
Goals by Emiliano Insua and Diego Capel allowed
Sporting to produce a stirring late comeback as they snatched a 2-1 home win
over Athletic Bilbao to earn a well-deserved advantage in the first leg of the
Europa League semi-final on Thursday.
Bilbao struggled to reproduce the inspired form that helped them to beat
Manchester United and Schalke 04 in previous rounds and they will need to
improve in next week's second leg if they want to reach the Bucharest final in
May.
Jon Aurtenetxe grabbed the breakthrough for the visitors in the 54th minute,
easily tapping the ball in after Sporting's Insua failed to clear Markel
Susaeta's free-kick.
But Sporting, unbeaten in 11 European home games, kept on believing and
Argentine Insua made up for his mistake 20 minutes later, levelling with an
exquisite header before Capel rifled in the winner with a left-footed shot.
"We turned around the result against a big team with a great performance as
we were unlucky to concede the first goal," Sporting coach Ricardo Sa Pinto said
in a television interview.
The Portuguese team dominated the first half and striker Ricky Van
Wolfswinkel squandered a golden chance to put them ahead in the ninth minute as
his shot flew inches wide.
Bilbao striker Fernando Llorente also went close but his header whizzed just
above keeper Rui Patricio's goal.
In the second half the Basques grabbed the away goal against the run of play
and Llorente should have added a second five minutes later but hit the post as
Sporting went on to produce a memorable comeback.