Holders Sevilla are well placed to reach a third straight Europa League final after battling out a late 2-2 draw Thursday at Shakhtar Donetsk in an interesting semi-final first leg, while Villarreal scored a late 1-0 home win over Liverpool.  
The Shakhtar-Sevilla clash was played in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv because of the political and military unrest around Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.
Spain midfielder Vitolo put Sevilla ahead against Shakhtar after just six minutes with a low drive after being cleverly set up by Kevin Gameiro.
However, the 2015 and 2014 winners failed to build on their early lead and allowed Shakhtar to take control.
Marlos quickly levelled for lively Shakhtar after taking a pass from Yaroslav Rakitskiy, then Taras Stepanenko gave them the lead by heading in a centre from the impressive Marlos.
Sevilla dominated the second half and Kevin Gameiro made it 2-2 eight minutes from time with a calm penalty, after Vitolo had been clumsily pulled down in the box by Facundo Ferreyra.
The only bad news for Sevilla was a serious knee injury suffered by Michael Krohn-Dehli.
“We are all worried about the condition of Michael,” man-of-the-match Vitolo said.
“We really had to work hard for this draw, against good opponents ...  The second leg is not going to be easy at all, we know that for sure.”
Meanwhile in Villarreal, Liverpool’s Joe Allen almost gave the visitors an early lead, only to be foiled by local keeper Sergio Asenjo.
Villarreal dominated for the next hour, with Cedric Bakambu heading a corner against the Liverpool post.  
Liverpool’s Roberto Firmino hit Asenjo’s post with a powerful drive, as Liverpool finally came out of their shell in search of what would have been an important away goal.
However, the visitors were caught by a slick sucker-punch right at the end as the hosts snatched a late win, when Denis Suarez launched a quick break and unselfishly set up supersub Adrian Lopez to make it 1-0.
“Of course I’m not too happy with the goal we conceded in the last second,” Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp said.
“It is 1-0 and they have to come to Anfield where we know how strong we are. We had our moments, we defended really well. This race is not over ... It will be a different game at Anfield.”
And Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet said: “I think a draw would have been a fairer result, to be honest.
“But they managed to score and we did not, that is a fact ... Now we have to turn this result around, in the return game.”
Meanwhile, Villarreal hero Adrian said: “That was an important goal for us to score, right at the end.
“But it is by no means over yet. We know that they are going to make things very difficult for us in Liverpool.”
Villarreal have won all six of their home matches in the Europa League this season. They are fourth in the Spanish Liga and well played to reach the qualifying round for next season’s Champions League.