The last hopes of Spain and England
The simultaneous departure of all English, Spanish and Italian clubs from the Champions League was the most surprising result of the quarter-final round. This has not happened since 1991, when the tournament was still known as the European Cup and was played in a different format.
But in the Europa League, teams from the Premier League, Examples and Serie A still made it to the semi-finals, so fans from the three countries listed above had a reason to take a closer look at what is happening these days on German football fields. The first to determine the finalist of the second most important European Cup were Manchester United and Sevilla.
Their confrontation was interesting primarily because both teams have never been eliminated from the Europa League or the UEFA Cup at the semi-final stage. "Sevilla" necessarily went further on five occasions, after which they also took the main trophy. Manchester United did not often participate in this tournament, but in 2017 he successfully overcame all the playoffs and won the title. This time the match had to spoil the beautiful statistics for one of them.
At the same time, both the Spaniards and the British made it to the semifinals with great difficulty. Julen Lopetegui's men took over the humble Wolverhampton with a goal from Lucas Ocampos in the 88th minute. The Mankunians only broke the resistance of Copenhagen in extra time thanks to a penalty from Brun Fernandes. The play of both future semi-finalists contrasted with what they showed in the summer - Manchester United finished the season in the Premier League with a spurt to third place, and Sevilla had not lost at all in 19 matches in a row when they arrived in Cologne.
With each other, the British and the Spaniards played only two matches, and for Manchester United, those two meetings in the Champions League two years ago ended with a departure from the tournament.
Fernandes' penalty and de Gea's curse
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer came as a surprise by announcing the starting lineup for the match against Sevilla. Usually in cup matches, he entrusted a place at the gate to Sergio Romero, who did a good job with his duties. But this time, the head coach preferred David de Gea, and the fans immediately had cause for concern. This season, Solskjaer has already made exceptions in favor of the Spaniard in the FA Cup and English League Cup semi-finals, and it was de Gea who became the anti-hero of these matches.
The game at the Rhein-Energi stadium was started more actively by the Mankunians. Sevilla goalkeeper Boone had to play and save the team more than once. He also repulsed the strike of Marcus Rashford in the seventh minute, but the striker was then knocked down by Diego Carlos. Although the moment was seized, the defender nevertheless violated the rule, and the referee had only to assign a penalty. Fernandes approached the “point” and almost without a running start hit exactly the left “nine”, consolidating his leadership in the Europa League bombing race.
“Sevilla” was stunned by this start of the match, and soon the Spaniards almost missed the second goal when they completely forgot about returning to the defense. Luckily for them, Fred didn't manage to hit the target from a great position. Lopetegui's wards cooled the rivals with a kick from Ocampos, which de Gea transferred to a corner, and took the ball under their full control for a few minutes.
This helped to issue a return goal in the 26th minute. Ocampos accelerated on the left flank and gave a pass forward to Sergio Regilon, who brilliantly transferred the ball across the entire penalty area of Suso. The Spaniard beat de Gea in close combat and evened the score. The remaining time of the first half, “Manchester” spent trying to regain the lead, but the moments performed by Anthony Martial and Fernandes did not change the numbers on the scoreboard.
Rescuing Bunu and De Jong's winning goal
After the break, Manchester United played with triple strength and locked the Sevilians in their penalty area. Boone had to show his best goalkeeping skills to fend off Mason Greenwood's shot from Fernandes' penetrating pass and extinguish the fire created by Martial and Rashford. The Moroccan did not flinch at the next attempt of the French striker to push the ball into the goal.
After so many unfulfilled moments, Sevilla asked for a response, but Lopetegui only replaced Ocampos with Munir and Youssef En-Nesiri with Luc de Jong, who could not enter the game. The Spaniards by inertia played on defense and tried to show something only at the expense of standards. In the 72nd minute, Regilon earned a dangerous free kick, and after hitting Joan Jordan, the ball hit Fernandes' elbow, but the referee, after consulting with the assistants, did not appoint a penalty.
For Manchester, this moment did not become a wake-up call. On the contrary, following the attackers, who considered their job done, the defenders also relaxed, and Sevilla was able to take advantage of this. In the 78th minute, Jesus Navas passed from the right flank, and de Jong jumped surprisingly easily from behind the backs of Victor Lindelof and Brandon Williams. De Gea was useless to resist.
At the end of regular time, Solskjaer made three changes at once, and the judge gave the newcomers a chance to prove themselves, adding six minutes. However, no one showed the hail of blows that took place before and immediately after the break. In total, in this match, the Mankunians beat on someone else's goal 20 times, but they could not distinguish themselves except from the penalty spot. At the same time, de Jong even tried to issue a double, but this time he underestimated the Manchester United defenders.
Sevilla won and reached the Europa League final for the sixth time. In the decisive matches, as in the semifinals, the Spaniards have not yet lost.