Daily Times

TURIN: Juventus’s disappointing season continued as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Nantes in the home leg of their Europa League playoff tie on Thursday. Juventus picked up one win from six Champions League group matches to drop into the Europa League playoffs and after also being deducted 15 Serie A points for financial irregularities their fans have endured a miserable campaign. The playoff came as welcome relief for the Turin giants against a side lying 13th in French Ligue 1 and the hosts raced into an early lead when Serbian striker Dusan Vlahovic swept home Federico Chiesa’s header across goal. Chiesa was unfortunate not to double his side’s advantage early in the second half after his powerful effort hit the underside of the crossbar, bounced on the goal line and came out. Nantes capitalised on that let-off, however, to score a fine equaliser on the hour mark, Ludovic Blas slamming the ball into the net following a swift counter-attack. The Nantes woodwork was again rattled when Angel Di Maria’s corner evaded everyone and clipped the crossbar, but a winner eluded Juve on another frustrating evening. Record six-times Europa League winners Sevilla breezed past PSV Eindhoven with a 3-0 home win thanks to goals by Youssef En Nesyri, Lucas Ocampos and Nemanja Gudelj. In Lisbon, Portuguese champions Sporting had to fight back to draw 1-1 at home with Denmark’s Midtjylland. Monaco captain Axel Disasi thundered in a stoppage-time goal to earn his team a 3-2 win at Bayer Leverkusen in their first leg.