The character of Arsenal, the luck of PSG and the victory of Porto with ten men: how the finals of the national cups in Europe ended

Aubameyang's double and a broken cup

The football season in England ended on Saturday with the country's Cup final, in which London's Arsenal andChelsea. Blues finished fourth in the Premier League standings and made their way to the Champions League. But the Gunners in the national championship performed extremely unsuccessfully, finishing only eighth. Thus, they needed a victory to break into the European competition. 

In this case, statistics were on the side of the team of Mikel Arteta. Arsenal had twice faced Chelsea in the FA Cup final prior to the reported game, and won both times, in 2002 and 2017. In those games, the team was led by Arsene Wenger. True, in the decisive match of the Europa League in 2019, Chelsea turned out to be stronger - 4: 1.

The debut of the meeting at Wembley turned out to be so unfortunate for the Gunners that it seemed they would not have a chance this time either. Frank Lampard's wards opened the scoring already in the fifth minute. They easily passed the opponent's defense, and Christian Pulisic, after a discount by Olivier Giroud, delivered an accurate shot from the goalkeeper's line. 

Next, the blue created a couple more unpleasant moments at the gate of Damian Martinez, but gradually the opponent pushed the game closer to the center of the field. And in the middle of the first half, Arteta's team managed to level the score. Cesar Azpilicueta lost the position to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and knocked him down in his own penalty area. The Gabonese himself confidently converted the penalty. 

A few minutes later, Azpilicueta was injured, and Lampard was forced to change him to Andreas Christensen. 

And at the beginning of the second half, Chelsea was left without Pulisic. The American burst into someone else's penalty area at speed, inflicted an inaccurate blow, and received a muscle injury. Instead, Pedro Rodriguez entered the game. 

Chelsea managed to get the ball back, but the team did not create dangerous chances and, as a result, after the break, they failed to strike a single shot on the opponent's goal. 

Arsenal waited patiently for their moment in the counterattack and waited for it in the middle of the second half. Hector Bellerin dragged the ball to someone else's penalty area at a speed, and Aubameyang, after a pass to Pepe, easily beat Kurt Zuma and threw Willie Caballero. So the Gabonese actually won the Cup for Arsenal, because all four goals of the team in the semifinals and the final of the tournament were on his account. 

In the time remaining before the final whistle, Chelsea tried to level the score, but the opponent calmly defended. In addition, Mateo Kovacic received a controversial second yellow card in the 73rd minute.

Additional time due to the injury of Pedro Rodriguez dragged on for 13 minutes, but Lampard's team did not manage to create at least a semblance of a dangerous moment. 

Thus, Arsenal beat their rival in the London derby in the CA final for the third time and won the 14th Cup of the country, which is a tournament record. And the players celebrated the victory so emotionally that they managed to drop the trophy. At the same time, its lower part fell off from the cup.

Aubameyang slammed Chelsea, and then the cup 🏆https: //t.co/Wkyq4m88CWpic.twitter.com/HjeaGJ1n7m

Navas' fateful save and the return of Depay

And on Friday, the League Cup final took place in France. At the Stade de France, PSG faced Lyon. The Parisians, as expected, had an advantage, but the rival goalkeeper Antoni Lopes had a great match. 

As a result, the players did not manage to distinguish themselves in the main and extra time, although Lyon remained in the minority in the 119th minute after Rafael was sent off. 

The fate of the game was decided in the penalty shootout. The teams successfully performed five attempts each, but Keylor Navas parried the sixth hit of Olimpic striker Bertrand Traore. Pablo Sarabia, in turn, sent the ball into the net and helped PSG win the French League Cup for the ninth time in history. According to this indicator, the Parisians are the champions.

But Lyon will not play in Europe for the first time since 1996. In the League 1 standings, the team took only seventh place. But Reims, who finished fifth, will return to European competition after 57 years of absence. 

The six-time champion of the country, whose heyday fell on the 40-60s of the last century, twice reached the European Cup final, in 1956 and 1959, but both times lost to Real Madrid. 

Lyon fans can only rejoice at the return to service of Captain Memphis Depay, who recovered from a severe knee injury and played the first match in 228 days.

Removal of the head coach and the goalkeeper's gross mistake

And in Portugal, Porto managed to get a golden double. Following the victory in the national championship, the team also won the national cup. At the same time, even the removal of one of the players along with the head coach at the end of the first half did not prevent the dragons from winning another trophy.

First, forward Luis Diaz received an optional second yellow card. A couple of minutes later, Porto head coach Sergio Conceição could not hold back his emotions after the controversial episode and also saw a red card in front of him.

But what happened only mobilized his charges, and at the beginning of the second half they scored twice after playing set pieces. The double was managed by the infrequently scoring Chancel Mbemba. 

In the first case, the opponent's goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos, who played extremely poorly at the exit and dropped the ball on his opponent, actually gave him an assist. 

But in the end, Benfica, who played in the majority, managed to revive the intrigue. In the 84th minute, Vinicius Morais cut the score back from the penalty spot. And in the added time by the referee, João Filipe almost turned the match into overtime, but the ball hit the post after his hit from the penalty line. 

So Porto won a tough victory and won the Portuguese Cup for the 21st time. By this indicator, the team caught up withSporting. In the first place with 29 trophies is Benfica.