We look at the loan action for our players over the weekend, with a good start to the Championship play-offs, the conclusion of the Portuguese season and more action from Italy.
Conor Gallagher and Marc Guehi helped Swansea City take control of their play-off semi-final, playing the full 90 minutes as they beat Brentford 1-0 in the first leg at the Liberty Stadium.
They had to stand firm in the first half as the Bees took the initiative and went on the attack, but Guehi and his fellow defenders did enough to keep them out and record an important clean sheet.
Momentum swung to the Swans in the second half after Brentford were reduced to 10 men and Gallagher was central to much that the Welsh side did in the opposition half. He helped serve Brentford warning, as his deft touch allowed Rhian Brewster to test goalkeeper David Raya and then Andre Ayew headed against the post from Gallagher’s corner.
After Ayew had a penalty saved, Gallagher was heavily involved again when the breakthrough did arrive, his clever flick helping release the Ghanaian to smash in the winner. Swansea take that one-goal lead into Wednesday evening’s second leg at Brentford.
On the last day of the season in the Portuguese top flight, Lucas Piazon helped Rio Ave to secure qualification for next season’s Europa League. The Brazilian featured throughout as they won 2-0 at Boavista, maintaining their one-point advantage over Famalicao to finish fifth in the table, guaranteeing them a spot in Europe.
Over in Italy, Victor Moses and Inter Milan’s title challenge came to an end, despite a 3-0 win at Genoa. However, the Nerazzurri did climb above Atalanta to second in the Serie A table with that victory, as they became the first club to reach the landmark of 3,000 Serie A games. The match was still finely poised as it entered the final 10 minutes at 1-0, but Moses got to the line and cut a cross back for Alexis Sanchez to volley in off the crossbar and make the three points safe.
Davide Zappacosta was an unused substitute for Roma as they beat Fiorentina 2-1, keeping them in pole position for automatic qualification for the Europa League group stage, sitting in fifth place in Serie A with two games remaining.