Madrid (AFP)

"Red Devils" against "Yellow Submarine": Manchester United must overcome the pitfall Villarreal and his helmsman Unai Emery, specialist of the Europa League, Wednesday (21:00) in the final in Gdansk, Poland, to hope to regain control of the C3, four years after his coronation in 2017.

Will Marcus Rashford, Paul Pogba and all the stars of Mancun be enough against the experience and track record of Emery, triple winner of the Europa League with Sevilla (2014, 2015, 2016) and finalist with Arsenal in 2019?

Everything is possible and the poster will be all the more followed in France as a victory for Manchester would allow the 3rd in Ligue 1, namely Monaco, to be directly qualified for the group stage of the next Champions League, without go through the perilous preliminary rounds.

Anyway, the Gdansk Stadium is hosting a poster that looks like the Champions League from the turn of the century: the last confrontations between the two teams date back to 2008 and 2005 in the group stage of C1, a golden age for them. two clubs.

The four meetings between Manchester United and Villarreal so far have always resulted in a 0-0.

- The sorcerer Emery -

But on Wednesday, one or the other will have to win.

For the moment, difficult to designate a favorite.

The Basque technician Unai Emery, former coach of Paris SG, has worked miracles since his appointment on the bench of the "Yellow Submarine" last summer.

He took over a fallow team and led it to seventh final place in La Liga, synonymous with qualification for the new Europa League Conference.

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The form of the moment is encouraging: Villarreal shone in the resounding victory (4-0) against the former team of Emery, Sevilla, with in particular a hat-trick from Carlos Bacca, or in the last league match on Saturday , concluded with a loss in extremis 2-1 against Real Madrid.

At the same time, as usual, Unai Emery made his know-how speak on the European scene: after his failures on the benches of Paris and Arsenal, he returned to a more modest club, to bring it to the summits, as he had done with Sevilla FC.

With his overwhelming enthusiasm, Emery managed to draw the best Villarreal team since the days of Diego Forlan, Santi Cazorla, Joan Capdevila and others Giuseppe Rossi, in the 2000s. He has rekindled hope among supporters of this city. medium-sized town in the agricultural suburb of northern Valencia (eastern Spain).

- Maguire absent?

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For Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Manchester United, this final will be an opportunity to validate their return to the fore.

Long considered a coach on borrowed time, named by virtue of his illustrious past of "Red Devil" to wait until the next big name after José Mourinho or Louis Van Gaal, "OGS" has silenced its critics.

After snatching a place on the championship podium in extremis and a ticket for the C1 last year, along with a semi-final of the Europa League, the Norwegian this time led the Red Devils a notch higher, to the post runner-up to the untouchable City and in the final of C3, after a disappointing 3rd place in Group H of the Champions League, behind PSG and the surprising Leipzig.

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With a gently sloping end of the season once second place was secured, Solskjaer was able to rest a tired workforce, especially the essential Aaron Wan-Bissaka behind, Bruno Fernandes in the middle or Marcus Rashford in attack.

He also knew how to find the words and the formula to remake Paul Pogba a reliable and essential player.

And by recruiting Edinson Cavani, free, last fall, United found their center forward "matador", which could not be Anthony Martial, long injured.

The big black spot, however, remains the almost certain absence of central defender Harry Maguire, who has missed the last 4 matches.

Without its psychological leader, whether Soslkjaer chooses Eric Bailly, Victor Lindelöf or Alex Tuanzebe in the center, the defense will undoubtedly be the Achilles heel of a Manchester who intends to aim even higher next season.

© 2021 AFP