published: thursday 20 february 2014, 23.23cet nk maribor 2-2 sevilla fc
substitute dare vršić levelled the scores at the death as the slovenian champions claimed something of a moral victory.
a 2-2 draw felt a lot like a victory for slovenian champions nk maribor, dare vršić levelling nine minutes from the end after sevilla fc looked to have stolen a march on their hosts.
the substitute blasted past javier varas from an angle to delight a packed house at the stadion ljudski vrt, and while there were chances for the spanish side to steal a win – piotr trochowski hit the bar, before jasmin handanovič saved vicente ıborra's shot – ante šimundža's men had cause for celebration at the whistle.
sevilla looked to assert their dominance after a cautious start, ıvan rakitić getting his eye in with a couple of searching passes, but found goalscoring chances hard to come by. maribor, meanwhile, were eager to pounce on any mistakes, jean philippe mendy firing just wide after wrong-footing federico fazio before dejan mezga had a shot which was a little too tame to trouble varas.
maribor then forged ahead on 33 minutes, martin milec steaming through to collect mezga's diagonal pass, and delivering the ball to tavares, who found the net from ten metres. with the home crowd in raptures, sevilla floundered for a while, but kevin gameiro nearly levelled before the break, handanovič saving his cheeky backheeled effort.
the french striker was denied again within seconds of the restart as sevilla tore into their hosts, and got on to the scoresheet soon afterwards, sliding in to meet rakitić's ball from the right at the far post. damjan bohar might have restored maribor's advantage just after the hour, but missed the target from a good position, and that looked to have been a costly error when fazio got his head to a rakitić corner 18 minutes from the end.
rakitić and substitute marko marin then passed up chances to kill off the game, setting the stage for vršić to give the underdogs what felt like their day.
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