Additional motivation for Villarreal
Looking at the UEFA Europa League final in Gdańsk from a historical perspective will upset open football fans. Since 2005, Manchester United and Villarreal have tried four times to identify the strongest in European competition, but they did not succeed in this - all matches ended in zero draws. True, today the opponents declare themselves to the finals as adherents of the attacking game. The British scored 73 goals in the domestic championship, losing on this indicator only to fellow countrymen from City. The Spaniards, on the other hand, closed the quartet of the most productive participants in Examples (60 accurate shots), losing only to the recognized grandees - Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atlético.
By the way, this trio finished with La Liga medals, while the Unai Emery team qualified seventh - and can only count on participation in the Conference League of the season-2021/22.
Isn't it an additional motivation for the Pyrenees to fight Manchester United?
Indeed, in the event of a triumph, Villarreal will automatically become a member of the Champions League - a tournament where the Mancunians have already made their way as the second team in England.
Maguire's injury as a chance for the Spaniards
If there is a recipe for Europa League success, Unai Emery probably knows it best. The mentor of Villarreal stands out among his colleagues for the fact that he won the tournament at the head of the Spanish Sevilla for three years in a row. In addition, in the 2018/19 season, the specialist brought Arsenal to the decisive match, but there his team lost to fellow Chelsea compatriots (1: 4). In the current draw, Emery also confirmed his reputation as a specialist in the second club competition in the UEFA hierarchy: Villarreal never stumbled on a distance of 14 matches (only two draws!) And only in the return semi-final against Arsenal did not score - although the tournament lasts longer six months.
It is important to emphasize that the fifth final of Emery is a unique achievement: none of the mentors have made their way to the main fight of a single European tournament so often (Carlo Ancelotti, Marcello Lippi, Alex Ferguson and Miguel Muñoz were celebrated four times in the Champions League finals).
The key to Villarreal's success has largely been Gerard Moreno's productivity.
The striker converted into goals scored almost all the chances that were given to him by his partners, and also did not forget to assist himself.
As a result, before the trip to Gdansk, he had accumulated luggage of six balls and four assists.
Therefore, holding back the scorer will be one of United's key objectives.
It is difficult to say how feasible this mission is. After all, the British lost the pillar of defense Harry Maguire due to injury, so they will have to rely on a bunch of Eric Bailly - Victor Lindelof. It is beautiful to almost everyone: here football players can give a high-quality advance, and they can compete on the second floor and win a race at a distance. But the stability in the actions of partners is rarely observed. And therefore the risk of individual error in this particular zone is quite high. Because of what, in fact, Manchester United ended the season with more conceded goals than Chelsea, who changed the head coach, and Liverpool, with a defensive line beaten with injuries, as well as almost on a par with Aston Villa, which became 11th in the Premier League, and Tottenham finishing seventh.
However, the Villarreal mentor believes the press is exaggerating the impact of Manchester United's losses: United have enough talent to compensate for the injured.
They can beat anyone on a given day, but we have our own trump cards.
We have studied United thoroughly.
The main thing is to take advantage of the opportunities that will come to us.
We respect the opponent, the tournament, the final, but everything depends on ourselves.
We will try to win at the expense of our ideas on the field, and not based on who will appear in the opponent's squad. "
Bet on Fernandes and Cavani
Who then relies on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in his quest to win the first trophy at the helm of Manchester? First of all, the coach believes in Bruna Fernandes. The midfielder, who for the second season in a row won the title of the best football player of the club according to the fans, was struck by the effectiveness of the attack. He not only set the Premier League record for goals for midfielders in a season, but also became vice-champion in a dispute for the title of the most creative player in Europe. In terms of the number of scoring chances created for partners, among the participants in the top 5 championships, he was second only to Hakan Chalhanoglu from Milan with an indicator of 95.
The Norwegian coach will probably use Edinson Cavani as the tip of his attacks. At least because he, along with Fernandes and Marcus Rashford, finished the Premier League season with ten accurate strikes. While he not only faced fierce competition as a center forward, he was also forced to adapt to England on and off the pitch as he joined the club during the season. The veteran showed himself brilliantly, forcing Manchester to forget about the injury of Antoni Martial. Plus, it is Cavani who knows the weaknesses of Unai Emery better than anyone in the Mancunian camp, since he worked under the Spaniard at Paris Saint-Germain.
“Since joining PSG, Emery has shown a passion for football. I really liked his style of work. This is a coach who will work hard and prepare as much as possible for the Europa League final. There is no doubt that he will study everything up and down. Based on my own experience, I think that in such matches everything is determined by the details. Little things decide the fate of the finals, and therefore it is necessary to maintain maximum concentration. We need to play a perfect match. I know that Unai is exactly like that. This is a hard worker trainer. It is for this reason that he won so many trophies, wherever he worked, "- said Cavani in an interview before the match.
Finally, Luke Shaw is back in such fantastic shape this year that his experts see England as the main left-back for the upcoming Euro.
Solskjaer returned the footballer's faith in himself after a career drawdown (severe injury, severe mental pressure from ex-mentor Jose Mourinho), as well as through competition with Alex Telles.
If we add to this the tactical scheme, which opened the Shaw space for active connections and high freedom of action in the final third of the field, then you get the ideal conditions for a football player to flourish.
And in them, Luke really went to a completely cosmic level.
Focus on first trophies
English teams have a streak of nine finals in a row, given to rivals from Spain in the European Cup playoffs.
Solskjaer clearly would not want to round off the figure, because then only the Norway Cup, won back in 2013, will remain alone in his trophy collection.
Although in public, the Norwegian demonstratively distances himself from this topic: “I never think about my track record.
It never even crossed my mind.
My job is to select players who are worthy to enter the field and make sure the team is ready.
All the coaches have shown themselves to be excellent, and the players are ready for the match.
If tomorrow you have to make difficult decisions, you have to be ready to do it. "
Unai Emery's "treasury" is much more crowded, but the Spaniard will aim at rewarding more than just boosting his own self-esteem.
In the modest "Villarreal" nobody saw the trophy of top tournaments in principle: two Intertoto Cups and an award for winning the fourth division - that's all that the team, created 98 years ago, can boast of. Otherwise, it is more of a club of broken hearts: second place in the 2007/08 Example, a semi-final misfire in the 2005/06 Champions League and three relegations from the Europa League in the semi-finals.
Manchester, on the other hand, sets its fans and football players for success by its grandeur and glorious past.
Even dropping out of the Champions League a few months earlier turned into a plus, as the club came to a real dispute over the trophy for the first time in four years.
In addition, the “red devils” have before their eyes a great example of compatriots who passed off failure as an intermediate step on the road to continental triumph.
In 2013, Chelsea became the first and so far the only English team to win the Europa League main prize after entering the local bracket from a more prestigious competition.
Neutral field is not a hindrance
The final deprives any of the teams of the home field advantage.
However, neither Manchester United nor Villarreal are particularly concerned about this.
For the entire season in the Premier League, the British have never lost on the road, becoming the third club in the history of the tournament to show such a high level of guest resilience.
In addition, this spring, the Mancunians did not lose a single meeting to the representatives of Spain - with eight goals on the wrong target, their own goal was kept intact.
“Villarreal” in the framework of the Europa League has already played a dozen of matches away from home without defeat, and in the last five meetings they have played to zero.
Provided they win on Wednesday, the Emery team will register a historic achievement: the victory will be their 25th in the playoffs of the competition, which will bring it to the first place in the number of victories in the second most important European competition.
We add that in the three finals of the Europa League, in which the English and Spanish representatives competed, the latter invariably proved to be stronger. Whether the tradition will continue, we'll find out closer to midnight.