Author: Soorya G
Spain’s Sevilla FC managed to win a record seventh Europa League title in impressive fashion, denying José Mourinho’s AS Roma a second consecutive European trophy. The match went to a penalty shootout, in which Sevilla came out on top and started the celebrations at the Puskas Arena in Hungary.
Argentinian full-back Gonzalo Montiel scored the decisive penalty for Sevilla in the shoot-out, just as he did in the World Cup final, when he had the privilege of taking the winning penalty for his country. Sevilla, who won the Europa League, extended their domination of the cup competition, winning their seventh trophy in a season that hasn’t been very good in La Liga.
Both teams had underwhelming campaigns in their respective leagues, even more so in the case of Sevilla, who fought against relegation for a significant part of the season. The team had an awful start to the season, which landed them in the La Liga relegation zone and led to the sacking of Julen Lopetegui. The Andalusian club then decided to bring back Jorge Sampaoli, who didn’t perform much better either, leading to the appointment of José Luis Mendilibar. Under Mendilibar, Sevilla managed to escape relegation and climb a few places in the league, as well as doing very well in the Europa League, beating Manchester United and Juventus on their way to the finals. The team seems to have approached the form of last season and, when they reached the Europa League final, their confidence was high after dominating Real Madrid in La Liga, despite losing 2-1.
Meanwhile, under Mourinho, Roma have witnessed a complete transformation from what looked like a sinking ship to one of Serie A’s best teams. They’ve also won prizes, winning UEFA’s first European Conference League last year. It’s interesting to note that when the race for the top four in Serie A coincided with the knockout phase of the Europa League, Mourinho decided to prioritize Europe, even resting Paulo Dybala for most of his Serie A commitments to preserve him for the final.
Emotions ran high in the summit clash, as referee Anthony Taylor ended up handing out several yellow cards, most of which went to the support staff of both sides rather than the players. Roma were the better team and deservedly took the lead after just two minutes, when Gianluca Mancini’s brilliant run put Paulo Dybala in an excellent position to score the first goal. Mancini, however, cancelled out the opening goal with an own goal at the start of the second half.
Sevilla’s aura of infallibility in Europe was called into question when Dybala received Mancini’s magical pass, slipping the ball onto his stronger left foot, before shooting across goal with artistic precision.
However, Mancini would become the villain 10 minutes into the second half when his own goal gave Sevilla the equalizer. After an inactive period of extra time, full-back Gonzalo Montiel’s penalty kick would decide another major cup tournament, albeit after a bit of controversy, which arose after Rui Patricio was deemed to have been offside on Montiel’s first shot, which the Portuguese goalkeeper had saved. The Argentinian scored the return goal and, as a result of Mancini and Ibanez’s missed penalty attempts, Sevilla were once again crowned Europa League champions.