Federico Gatti headed home in the 97th minute to earn Juventus a 1-1 draw against Sevilla in their Europa League semi-final first leg on Thursday night.

Youssef En-Nesyri gave the record six-time champions the lead in the first half and they seemed set to take that advantage back to Seville before Gatti’s late intervention.

Moroccan international En-Nesyri finished a sharp counter-attack in the 26th minute to break the deadlock in Turin.

Jose Luis Mendilibar’s side deserved their lead at the break and although Juventus improved, the Andalucians shut them out well in their bid to take their advantage back to the rowdy Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan next week.

However, Gatti nodded home from point-blank range after substitute Paul Pogba headed the ball back into his path from a corner.

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Mendilibar said: “It’s a shame, given the game that we played, that they levelled in the last play of the match, but it is what it is.

“We stopped Juventus in every moment and we played well at times too, we have to think about that, not the last moment of the game.”

Sevilla, who dumped Manchester United out in the quarter-finals, have never been knocked out of the tournament in the semi-final stage.

Also on Thursday, Edoardo Bove fired Roma to a 1-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen in a tight first leg of their Europa League semi-final.

Bove scored the only goal of the game in the 63rd minute at the Stadio Olimpico, allowing Jose Mourinho’s side to take a slender lead into next week’s second leg in Germany.

The win gives Mourinho the chance to reach his second European final in as many years as Roma coach after winning the Europa Conference League last season.

The coach said: “It’s all down to the boys tonight who played with desire and the right mentality.

“I have put in a lot of miles over the course of my career but even I really felt the support of the fans tonight and the boys responded with the desire to make them happy.”

The Star