Swansea City of the English Premier League took a major step towards qualifying for the group phase of the Europa League on Thursday following a 5-1 thrashing of Romanian side Petrolul Ploiesti in the first leg of their playoff round tie at the Liberty Stadium.
Michael Laudrup went up against an old team-mate as his Swansea City side took on last season’s Romanian Cup winners Petrolul Ploiesti in the first leg of their Europa League play-off tie at the Liberty Stadium in Wales.
Visiting coach Cosmin Contra was part of the Getafe team which Laudrup led to the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup back in 2008, but the pleasentries stopped there as Swansea took the lead as early as the 14th minute.
A quickly taken free kick fell to Wayne Routledge and his shot found the net following a deflection.
Jonjo Shelvey‘s cross eight minutes later was athletically pulled back across goal by Pablo Hernandez and Michu was on hand to fire the ball home.And then Routledge got his second of the night, converting Hernandez’s cross with a stooping header.
Three goals up by half time, Swansea came out for the second half eager to add to their tally.
Good fortune favoured the home side too.
Just before the hour mark, Michu danced his way into the opposition penalty area and tried to set up Wilfried Bony at the near post.
goalkeeper Peterson Pecanha thought he had done enough to smother the chance, but inadvertantly put the ball over the line with his left arm.
four-nil soon became five-nil after Michu’s pass put Alejandro Pozuelo in on goal and his deft finish appeared to have put the icing on a very impressive Swansea performance.
However, the goal of the night was yet to come and Gheorghe Grozav scoring a late consolation goal for the visitors.
5-1 in finished though and Laudrup’s team has all but sealed their place in the group stages.
