The China Mail - Rayo down Strasbourg in Conference League to set up first European final

Rayo travelled to France with a lead to defend after a solitary goal by Alemao last week in Madrid, and the Brazilian striker scored again late in the first half here as the visitors ran out deserving winners at the Stade de la Meinau.

The team from the sprawling Vallecas neighbourhood in the south of the Spanish capital have never really been a regular presence in La Liga and their only European campaign before this season came in 2000/01 when under Juande Ramos they got to the UEFA Cup quarter-finals.

Now they are just one more win away from a first major trophy, although they will be underdogs against Palace in the final in Leipzig.

Nevertheless, the team coached by Inigo Perez, a former assistant to Andoni Iraola before the latter moved to Bournemouth, were widely seen as the outsiders against Strasbourg and ultimately ran out worthy victors.

Strasbourg, who belong to the same BlueCo consortium which owns Chelsea, were targeting a first European trophy of their own and were hopeful of succeeding the London club as winners of the third-tier continental competition.

However the team coached by Gary O'Neil -- who succeeded Liam Rosenior in the dugout in January when the latter moved to Stamford Bridge -- were handicapped by injuries to their two main striking options.

Top scorer Joaquin Panichelli suffered a serious knee injury on international duty with Argentina in March and skipper Emmanuel Emegha -- who will join Chelsea next season -- was also ruled out.

Without them, they were forced to play with former Brighton attacking midfielder Julio Enciso as their attacking spearhead, but the Paraguayan is not a target man and also squandered a late penalty.

Rayo worked tirelessly to stop Strasbourg's most influential players from dominating the game, especially Argentina midfielder Valentin Barco.

And the Spaniards carried the greater attacking threat, having numerous chances to open the scoring on the night before doing so in the 42nd minute.

When a ball was delivered into the home box, Florian Lejeune's attempt was parried by Mike Penders, but the on-loan Chelsea goalkeeper could do nothing to keep out Alemao's follow-up effort.

That left Strasbourg needing to score twice without reply just to force extra time, but they never really looked like finding the net once, at least until injury time.

That was when they were awarded a spot-kick for handball against Rayo captain Oscar Valentin, but Enciso's effort was saved by Augusto Batalla.

The final whistle then sparked joyous celebrations in the corner of Rayo fans in the crowd of more than 31,000.

Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid fell short in the Champions League, but Rayo's exploits mean the Spanish capital does have one European finalist this season.

U.Chen--ThChM