baptista spot on for sevilla published: friday 3 december 2004, 0.03cet sevilla fc 3-2 aek athens fc julio baptista converts a late penalty to ensure the spanish side advance.
brazilian striker julio baptista's late goal ensured that sevilla fc reached the uefa cup's last 32 courtesy of a 3-2 victory against aek athens fc at the sánchez pizjuan stadium. the win meant elimination from the competition for the greek side, who were consigned to their third successive defeat.
liberopoulos opener sevilla started the brighter, solid in midfield and interchanging passes impressively going forward but their greater possession in the early stages failed to pay dividends and instead nikos liberopoulos struck for the visitors in the tenth minute. the 29-year-old striker pounced on a mistake in the home defence before calmly placing his shot past goalkeeper esteban suárez.
antoñito on hand baptista, whose goal against fc zenit st. peterburg on matchday 3 rescued a point for the spanish side, equalised in the 19th minute, heading in a corner from brazilian defender renato. the andalusian team then drove forward in greater numbers and antoñito put them ahead on 29 minutes, latching on to a precise through-ball to go clear in the box and beat dionisios chiotis.
giorgiopoulos strike the visitors emerged for the second period determined to make an impact and were back in contention within two minutes when defender stavros giorgiopoulos rifled into the top corner after he was set up by a konstantinos katsouranis free-kick.
baptista winner the match appeared to be heading for a draw, but the tireless baptista had other ideas and tucked away an 89th-minute penalty after a foul on substitute kepa blanco to snatch all three points. sevilla face losc lille métropole in their final match of the section on 15 december looking to win the group and avoid the higher-profile teams eliminated from the uefa champions league. aek will have no more than pride to play for when they meet tsv alemannia aachen on the same day.
