For this Europa League final, the suspense was there.

It was indeed necessary to wait for the end of a very long penalty shootout to attend the first coronation in the competition of Villarreal.

The team beat Manchester United (1-1, 11-10 on penalties) on Wednesday night in Gdansk, Poland.

With this victory, Unai Emery enters the history of the C3.

He becomes the first coach to win this trophy four times after the treble achieved with Sevilla (2014, 2015, 2016).

Another notable person in the confrontation: Etienne Capoue.

The French midfielder from Villarreal was voted man of the match by a technical panel of observers, despite a yellow card collected in the 54th minute.

Cavani revives the Red Devils

The first half hour of the match was largely dominated by the English, facing a very dense Villarreal in the center but whose offensive transitions were seized. It's no surprise, however, that the opening goal came on a set piece. A very loose marking of the English rearguard, a perfect race and a recovery while touching Gerard Moreno, just out of reach of David De Gea, gave the advantage to the yellow (1-0, 29th).

If the debates were then rebalanced until the break, the opening of the scoring did not seem to disturb the Red Devils who set out again to attack the opposing goal. And finally on a corner pushed back, but taken back by Rashford at the entrance to the area, the ball deflected by a defender returned to the feet of Cavani who only had to push it to the bottom (1-1, 55th ). The Manchester player, however, had to wait long seconds for the VAR and French referee Clément Turpin to confirm that he was not offside to let his joy burst out. Then, not helped by their manager's choice to wait until the first part of extra time to make their first change, when Emery had made his last two in the 88th, United exhausted themselves in sterile domination in the second half.

No direct place in C1 for Monaco 

In extra time, Villarreal seemed most likely to deliver the fatal blow, but between two teams having gone 0-0 five times in their previous five encounters, it was said there would be no winner in the game. So we had to go to penalties.

And this session was particularly breathtaking: each shooter succeeded in his attempt, until the final failure of goalkeeper David de Gea, 11th shooter from Mancun.

With this first major trophy, the Spanish club offers itself a place in the Champions League.

Upon learning the news, AS Monaco did not have to applaud.

The principality's club could indeed have benefited from a direct place in the group stage of the C1 in the event of Manchester's victory.

The 3rd in Ligue 1 will eventually have to go through the dams.

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  • Uefa

  • Unai emery

  • Manchester United

  • Soccer

  • Europa League

  • Villareal

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