Sevilla once again showed their strong ties with the UEFA Europa League when they stood up to win their seventh title in Europe’s secondary club competition against AS Roma on Wednesday in Budapest,
Hungary. The tie was tagged as the clash of two titans who had their records unblemished in one way or the other.
Sevilla would have naturally gone into the game as favourites, having won every single UEL finals they have played in, but Jose Mourinho (not necessarily Roma’s) unblemished European finals record meant that predicting a winner was always going to be tough.
The game started with Roma starting with the pressure, going and looking the likely side to open the scoring, and they did through Paulo Dybala as the Argentine put Jose Mourinho’s record of always winning a European final and the chance of being the first man to win the UEL with three different teams in a safe space in the 34th minute.
However, the Italian’s lead lasted till the 55th minute when Gianluca
Mancini scored an own goal to pull the game to extra time, although not without nervy moments like Ivan Rakitic’s stunning strike that kissed the upright or a penalty call for Sevilla in the second half that the VAR overturned in the 76th minute.
A late onslaught by Roma, even in extra time, would produce no goals as it went straight to penalties at the Puskas Arena. Sevilla scored all four of their spot kicks while Gianluca Mancini’s torrid evening continued as he missed Roma’s second kick, Roger Ibanez’s miss gave Gonzalo Montiel a chance to win it, and so he did after a second attempt as Rui Patricio saved his first attempt which was eventually called back for encroachment.
Sevilla will now go into next season’s UEFA Champions League despite the possibility that they will finish outside the top ten in La Liga.
Mourinho’s chance of winning two different European trophies in back-to-back seasons went away in the flames of a never-ending love affair between Sevilla and the UEFA Europa League.
Daniel Ademiju Idowu
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