Sevilla won their seventh Europa League this Wednesday, beating José Mourinho’s Roma, in the penalty shoot-out, after a 1-1 tie, and ‘gave’ the Portuguese coach his first defeat in European finals.
Mancini and the Brazilian Ibañez wasted maximum punishments for the Romans – Cristante converted his –, while the Sevillians converted the four penalties they had, by Ocampos, Lamela, Rakitic and Montiel.
The final reached penalties and extra time after Argentinian Dybala gave the Italian team the advantage, in the 35th minute, and the Spaniards tied, with an own goal by Mancini, in the second half, in the 55th minute.
In a football ‘marathon’ that had little enthusiasm in goal, the team most likely to win this competition prevailed, with seven titles, more than any other club, in the face of the ‘inevitability’ of José Mourinho, who knows what which is to lose a European final after six victories, the last one being the Europa Conference League with the ‘Loba’ club.
‘Mou’ had two Champions Leagues, the first with FC Porto in 2004 and another in 2010, with Inter Milan, and had already won the UEFA Cup with the ‘dragons’ before winning the successor, the Europa League, in 2017 with Manchester United, heading to Roma to impose himself in the inaugural edition of the Europa Conference League, already in the ‘romanistas’.
A balanced and rarely well-played game seemed to fit the style of both teams, yielding few goal opportunities, a profusion of man-to-man duels and the ‘hope’ that an accurate set piece could make the difference.
In the first half, the first to show up was Spinazzola, in the 11th minute, with the Moroccan Bono denying the first goal, which would come after the Romans protested a penalty kick after the Serbian ex-Sporting player Gudelj hit with his foot in head of the Englishman Abraham, without the video referee (VAR) having considered it worthy of a foul.
A recovery by Cristante, the former Benfica midfielder, in the midfield allowed Mancini to discover the Argentinian Dybala, Mourinho’s big ‘bluff’, who had guaranteed that he could only play “20 or 30 minutes”, having been launched from the beginning.
The 17th goal of this season by the Argentine ‘star’, who arrived at the club for free after leaving Juventus, in the 35th minute, made up an ideal final for the Portuguese coach, who took care of defending the lead in the best possible way.
The former FC Porto Fernando header went over unopposed, on 44 minutes, and in the sixth minute of added time Croatian Rakitic hit the post, from outside the area, after the pyrotechnics shot onto the pitch had momentarily stopped the start for a few seconds.
Sevilla, who have won all six of their competition finals to date and seem to have a magnet for the trophy, started strong in the second half, with José Luis Mendilibar launching Suso and Lamela onto the field, in place of the former ‘dragon ‘ Óliver Torres and Bryan Gil.
A cross from the ‘eternal’ captain of the Spaniards, Jesús Navas, led to Mancini amending to his own goal, at 55, giving a new moment of glory to the veteran, who was winning the 2006, against Middlesbrough, then 20 years old.
It was Mourinho’s first goal since he beat Celtic in the 2003 UEFA Cup final 3-2, which followed five decisive games in which he kept the goal inviolable, until today.
VAR had to work again at 75, annulling a penalty initially assigned to the Spanish formation, and then at 82, for a possible hand of the ball that would favor the Italians, before Belotti provided a new defense for Bono.
In the last minute of added time, an incomplete save by Patrício created a new occasion for danger for the Spaniards, with Fernando shooting crookedly, but extra time was the end of regular time.
This resulted in an even less well-contested game, with few major moves, and a continuous ‘suffering’ from both sides, with physically diminished squads and almost ‘asking’ for a shoot-out on penalties, except for a header by the English defender Smalling to bar at the end of the ‘marathon’ that only ended beyond 120+11.
In the shoot-out for penalties, Bono and Rui Patrício emerged as candidates for heroes, given their propensity to defend in these moments, but only the former ‘shone’, when he saved Mancini’s penalty with his leg and then saw the Brazilian Ibañez fail.
The Portuguese goalkeeper even saved a ball from Montiel, which would keep Roma in the game, but the referee ordered it to be repeated as the Portuguese international moved from the goal line, giving the Argentine defender, who had already scored the decisive shot in tiebreaker of the Qatar2022 World Cup final, the opportunity to be the hero of another ‘nation’, the Sevillian.
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Source: Futebol 365 by www.futebol365.pt.
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