Roma, atrocious disappointment from the eleven meters: Sevilla wins the Europa League
Europa League, Sevilla wins: Roma knocked out on penalties
Atrocious disappointment for José Mourinho’s Roma, mocked on penalties by Sevilla in the Europa League final. For the Andalusians it is the seventh title in the European competition: 1-1 the final result after extra time, on penalties it is 4-1 for Mendilibar’s team.
Roma started better and, although without overdoing it, materialized in the 35th minute the amount of play produced: precise pass by Mancini for Dybala, ‘La Joya’ did not tremble in front of Bounou and made it 1-0. Sevilla’s response was not long in coming: the Andalusians crushed the Giallorossi in the final minutes of the first half and in the first minutes of the second, although it was only an unfortunate deflection by Mancini in an attempt to anticipate En-Nesyri, on Jesus Navas’ conclusion, that mocked Rui Patricio for the 1-1.
The match livened up, Roma regained the field and came close to scoring with Ibanez in the 67th minute, with the Brazilian failing from an excellent position after a knock-on in the box. A minute later Dybala runs out of gas, leaving the field leaving room for Wijnaldum. From there he becomes the protagonist, for better or worse, the referee, England’s Anthony Taylor: in the 77th minute he awards a penalty to Sevilla after an alleged contact in the area between Ibanez and Ocampos, later retracing his steps after a Var review; in the 80th minute he denies a penalty that would seem obvious to the Giallorossi (the referee sees Fernando’s touch with his arm but considers it adherent to the body); two minutes later neither he nor the assistant see Bounou’s deflection that denies Belotti (who entered in place of Abraham in the 75th minute) the joy of the goal, depriving the Giallorossi of the chance of a corner.
The last few minutes of regulation play were less tense, with Sevilla coming close to scoring with Suso and shortly afterwards with Fernando in the midst of recovery: first Rui Patricio and then the Brazilian midfielder’s inaccuracy meant that it went into extra time.
The extra time was played at a very low pace, with the two contenders suffering from fatigue, making several substitutions (for Roma, inside Zalewski, El Shaarawy and Llorente for Celik, Pellegrini and Spinazzola) and not creating major scoring chances. The match, given the numerous interruptions, ends after 146 minutes of total play (a record), with the triple whistle coming just a moment after the resounding cross hit by Smalling on the developments of a corner kick.
The lottery of shots from the penalty spot began with Ocampos beating Rui Patricio and Cristante beating Bounou. Then the first mistake, by Mancini, was followed by Ibanez’s. For Sevilla, however, Lamela, Rakitic and Montiel scored (the latter after a repeat due to the early movement of the Roma goalkeeper, who had rejected the first attempt): the Andalusians exulted, no European encore for Roma after last year’s Conference League.
