De Gea misses penalty, Villarreal win The Europa League!

The average Europa League finale during the 90 minutes turned into a penalty thriller not seen in recent football history: Villarreal won it’s first European trophy in history after converting all 11 penalties! Unai Emery again proved that he is a king of the Europe League, as the Spaniard won his fourth trophy in his fifth finale, becoming only the fourth manager in history to have won four major European trophies after Jose Mourinho, Bob Paisley and Giovanni Trappatoni.

His team, which finished La Liga in seventh place, proved too strong for the great Manchester United, who finished second in the world’s best Premier League. Villareal played a tactically exceptional game against a stronger opponent. Emery managed to completely shut down Bruno Fernandes, who proved once again that he is not the man for big games, and the rest was easy. The only players who were dangerous for United tonight were Cavani and Greenwood, but it was not good enough for the victory.

Great sir Alex Ferguson came over to Poland with the team, Wayne Rooney came with his son, but it just wasn’t to be. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer talked before the game of the importance of the 26th May (the date of United’s famous Champions League win and the birthday of his wife), but dates are just dates, and the games are won by players and tacticians, and United had neither tonight. Unai Emery outclassed the Norwegian and proved that he in fact a great manager for smaller teams. The Spaniard didn’t succeed in PSG or Arsenal, but was brilliant with Seville and Villareal.

Experienced Emery knew that he couldn’t win the possession battle against Manchester, so he concentrated on defense, good positioning and set-pieces. In the first half, United had 70% of possession, but Villareal had more shots on goal, and scored one. It was, off course, a fantastic Gerard Moreno, the third scorer in La Liga who got Villarreal up front after half an hour.

Man United were vulnerable at the back since they lost their captain Harry Maguire due to injury, but with or without him, Red Devils are struggling from set pieces this season. After a pale first half, United started to press more and more in the second, and finally Edinson Cavani managed to sneak one in after Rashford’s volley took a few deflections before dropping to his feet.

The goal gave Solskjaer’s men a much needed boost so Villareal had some serious defending to do in the next 20 minutes. When the pressure ceased, The Spanish team managed two consecutive corners and instead of using United’s weakness, they just wasted them. Both teams played between each other’s penalty area and the game went into overtime.

Surprisingly (or not), Solskjaer didn’t made a single substitution during the 90 minutes of the match, while Emery made five. The likes of Diallo (unexperienced), Maguire (not fit), Telles, Tuanzebe or Van de Beek were simple not better that the first 11, so the Norwegian coach didn’t change a thing, but his teams looked more tired in the first extra time, while five new players brought more freshness to Villareal’s side, who had the ball and even a few half-chances, but not nearly enough to score. Tuanzebe, Fred and James came in when Greenwood, Bailly and Pogba became too tired, while Matta and Telles came just one minute before the penalty shootout.

And the penalty shootout was a special story, but a rather short one, because everybody scored until De Hea, the last player on the pitch, was denied by his counterpart Rulli. Rarely we have seen a penalty shootout where everybody has the nerve to score in critical moments, but this was the night. And De Hea, who is surely leaving Manchester after the season, failed not only to score the goal, but to save any of the 11 shots from Villarreal players.

But, the Spaniard is surely not the one to be solely blamed, his team mates were simply not good enough during the 90 minutes of the game. This Manchester United needs to get reinforcements and soon. Otherwise, they will not win any trophies in 2022 either.