The kings of the Europa League have been crowned once again. Sevilla added to their title record in the Europa League as they won their 7th EL title at the expense of Jose Mourinho Roma’s, beating the Italian side 4-1 on penalties.
Never bet against Sevilla in the Europa League.
Despite having an utterly catastrophic La Liga season in which the side can finish no higher than 7th (and currently sit in 11th place), Sevilla once again showed they are the masters of the Europa League as they defeated Jose Mourinho and his Roma at their own game by winning 4-1 on penalties after tying 1-1 through regulation and extra time. And, even though I was pulling for Roma and Jose, this win was more than deserved for Sevilla.
Plain and simple, this game was a war.
Aside from the first half, a half in which Roma pretty much dominated the game and went up 1-0 through Paulo Dybala’s side-volley strike, the game divulged into a dogfight between the Roma players and coaches, the Sevilla players and coaches, and even the referee crew.
Every loose ball was fought over with teeth and nails, every free kick and corner had all men behind the ball with the attacking side sending up their strongest, most courageous ariel duelists, no inch of ground was given up freely past each side’s midfield semi-circle, and all players were willing to put their bodies on the line (and did so repeatedly) whenever the opposing side brought the ball into their half.
All tactics were pushed aside (apart from the very basics) in favor of all-out, bend-but-don’t-break defense, determined ball-winning, and relentless passion on every passage of play.
As I said, this match was a Mourinho masterclass as he turned the final from a football match into a physical tug-of-war for momentum and confidence. And I personally loved every minute of it.
Sure, I understand a lot of people saying that they hated the game given how little football was actually played with all of the fouls, shouting matches from the sidelines, injury stoppages, free kicks, corners, goal kicks, etc., or how this “wasn’t really football” as both Roma and Sevilla were more focused on not giving up the game-winning goal than scoring the game-winning goal in 140+ minutes (if you count all the stoppage time) of football.
But I really couldn’t disagree more with these people. It was a match of heart.
This match wasn’t one of the footballing classics put on by the giants of Europe, such as we’ve seen with Man City, Liverpool, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, PSG, etc. battle through these past 6-7 years, but it still had the chances and heart that one should expect of a game of this magnitude.
Tammy Abraham and Andrea Bellotti saw their shots masterfully saved by Sevilla’s Bono late in regulation, Lorenzo Pelligrini had a shot saved in the first half, Fernando had a free header that went flying over the bar in the 1st half, Ivan Rakitic saw a shot that went fizzling off the post, Gianluca Mancini had an own goal bounce in off his knee to level the game for Sevilla, there were numerous penalty shouts, and Chris Smalling had a header bounce off the crossbar in stoppage time in extra time.
This game had chances and easily could have been 3-2 or 4-2 for either team if the bounces went a different direction, but the staple of this game was he dedication to defense and keeping a lead.
In Europe this season, there really hasn’t been two sides more clinical in keeping a lead than Sevilla and Roma, which was put on fully display in this game as neither bent when the pressure on them grew to its greatest height. In truth, I wish both sides could have won as they deserved it, but only one could in the end and that ended up being Sevilla.
The penalty shootout actually ended up being the most one-sided affair in the entire match as Sevilla made four straight shots, while Roma missed two penalties and didn’t even manage to attempt a fourth before Sevilla eliminated them 4-1 in the shootout.
There’s going to be people complaining (especially Jose as he was all ref Anthony Taylor before, during, and after the match) about the Rui Patricio non-save due to him encroaching off the goal line, but Roma coming back to win the shootout was almost impossible even if the Patricio save was given.
Roma needed to score both of their shots (which didn’t seem likely given their prior misses) and Sevilla just had to make their final shot to win the match outright.
The shootout and 2022/23 Europa League title was decided for Sevilla the moment Mancini and Roger Ibanez missed their penalties, while Gonzalo Montiel’s (who also scored the winning penalty for Argentina in the World Cup) game-winning penalty only iced the result.
So, congratulations on winning your record-breaking 7th Europa League title, Sevilla, as you have more than earned the title. Oh, and also congratulations on earing nearly $30M in prize money and booking a place in next season’s Champions League group stage.
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