The Portuguese giants were 2-1 up from their semifinal, first leg game played in Lisbon last week but lost the away match 1-0 tonight, thereby going out of the competition on away goals’ rule.
Coach Jesus was understandably crestfallen at failing to reach the final in Dublin and is quoted by Uefa.com as saying after the match: “We didn’t get lucky. We had several chances and we couldn’t manage to score. The Braga goalkeeper Artur was inspired and denied us some chances. We are disappointed.”
Defender Jardel too expressed his frustration: “We’re very sad. We didn’t deserve to go out like this for all that we achieved in the competition until now. Unfortunately, we couldn’t score.”
The other semifinal second leg encounter on Thursday ended in a 3-2 victory for Villarreal over Porto in Spain, but the Portuguese champions progressed to the final as they had won the first-leg 5-1 at home.
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Benfica’s Jorge Jesus & Jardel disappointed with Europa League exit