published: wednesday 15 december 2010, 20.56cet fc lausanne-sport 0-1 us città di palermo
the group f placings had been decided before kick-off, yet ezequiel muñoz ensured palermo signed off with a win in switzerland.
us città di palermo signed off their uefa europa league group f campaign with a win away to the bottom club fc lausanne-sport.
palermo had the better of the chances and finally made lausanne pay with an ezequiel muñoz header six minutes from time. the win moved the sicilian club on to seven points, two behind second-placed ac sparta praha, but their fate had already been decided.
palermo adapted better to the freezing conditions in the first half and fashioned the more clear-cut chances. brazilian winger joão pedro nearly made lausanne's guillaume katz pay for a poor 28th-minute clearance only for his left-footed strike to skim the top of the crossbar.
the breakthrough almost came just past the half-hour mark when nicola rigoni's effort deflected past anthony favre's right-hand post with the keeper stranded. favre had to be on his toes again to tip pajtim kasami's 35th-minute shot round the post after good work in the build up from massimo maccarone.
another chance went begging for palermo when maccarone's powerful shot from the edge of the box was palmed into the path of pedro, who somehow managed to miss the target with the follow-up.
lausanne captain fabio celestini almost capped his final appearance for the swiss club with a thundering 35-metre volley but it came back off the crossbar with palermo's francesco benussi beaten.
the deadlock was finally broken in the 86th minute when muñoz towered above the lausanne defence to head past favre and into the bottom right-hand corner. ıt had no long-term consequence for either side, though; both were eliminated from a pool won convincingly by pfc cska moskva.
