Man Utd, Inter Milan Reach Europa League Semifinals

Manchester United was forced to dive deep into the semi-finals of the Europa Cup, with the Portuguese middleman Bruno Fernandes converting the 95th-minute penalty to a 1-0 victory over the resilient FC Copenhagen team after extra time on Monday.

United, who won Europe's second-tier competition in 2017, will face Sevilla or Wolverhampton Wanderers in the finals on Sunday after grinding down the Danes and their motivated goalie Karl-Johan Johnsson in an exciting contest, reports India Today.

Sevilla, who lifted the Europa League trophy five times, faces Wolves in Duisburg on Tuesday, while the 2009 champions, Shakhtar Donetsk, will take on FC Basel in Gelsenkirchen.

Inter Milan also earned a semi-final berth by upsetting Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 in Monday 's second tie as the mini-tournament played around Germany on a one-off knockout basis got underway.

Copenhagen controlled the first half and skipped a few opportunities, with the Unified Defense looking all at the sea in the first 20 minutes while they made some futile attempts to stop Mohamed Daramy and Jonas Water.

United thought they had taken the lead on a half-time drive, but Mason Greenwood's powerful shot in the far corner was rightly called out for offside after a VAR test.

Being on the back foot in the opening half spurred United into practice, however, and they produced a whirlwind of chances after the break, even though Wind was still near at the other end.

Fernandes and Greenwood hit the woodwork and Marcus Rashford had an effort ruled out for offside while Copenhagen's Johnsson produced a string of superb saves to force extra time.

Fernandes resolved the game when he hammered his spot-kick past Johnsson after Anthony Martial, who had a few sitters stopped by the goalie, was flogged by Andreas Bjelland.

Johnsson then pulled out a pair of impressive stops to hold Martial and Mata off, racking up a record of 13 saves, much of which he's holding in a single Europa League game since 2009.

Copenhagen pushed out in pursuit of an equaliser in the last 15 minutes of extra time, but the U.S. defense held on as the Old Trafford team earned their third semi-final spot this season after falling to the League Cup and the FA Cup.

Spanish playmaker Mata acknowledged that United were exhausted by a demanding season prolonged by the Covid-19 pandemic but was confident they would finish on a high note.

"The team is quite tired physically," he told BT Sport.

"At this stage of this season it is important to win games like today and we go through. We stay in Germany for quite some time and hopefully we can win (the trophy).

"We scored one goal, of course we are happier when we score more but now it is time to recover and wait and find out who we get in the next round."