At the end of a penalty shootout completed by the goalkeepers, Villarreal and his coach Unai Emery, specialist in the Europa League finals, defeated Manchester United (1-1, 11-10 on penalties), Wednesday, May 26 at midnight, in Gdansk, Poland.
The Red Devils, who largely dominated most of the match, can blame themselves and therefore do not offer Monaco a direct place in the group stage of the C1 next season.
For Emery, it’s a fourth coronation in five finals, after the hat-trick achieved with Sevilla (2014, 2015, 2016) and the final lost in 2019 with Arsenal. He becomes the first coach to win this trophy four times and takes a nice revenge after his failed stints at Paris SG and with the Gunners.
For Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, on the other hand, the defeat is bitter and he will not escape a few questions about his management of this final. He was promised, before the match, a tough choice for his wingers between Paul Pogba, Mason Greenwood and Marcus Rashford.
The Norwegian thought he had circumvented the pitfall by pushing the French back to a left central midfielder position he is less fond of. But the disappointing performance of Rashford, who did not achieve much, highlighted his lack of alternatives on the bench, a recurring evil and urgently to be corrected for the Red Devils, if they want to aim higher.
Weakened defense
In the absence of Harry Maguire, injured in an ankle, we also knew the defense of the Red Devils, with his hinge Victor Lindelöf-Eric Bailly, weakened. And despite a first half hour largely dominated by the English, facing a very dense Villarreal in the center but whose offensive transitions were seized, it is not a surprise that the opening of the score came on a sudden set foot.
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 yellow advantage (1-0, 29e).
It was the 30e goal of the season in all competitions for the Spanish striker who joined the Italian Giuseppe Rossi at the top of the best directors in history for the Valencian club with 82 goals.
If the discussions were then rebalanced until the break, the opening of the scoring was not enough to disturb United, used to chasing after the score. In the Premier League this season, it happened 17 times and on 10 occasions they ended up winning, with a draw and six losses.
Endless penalty shootout
They started again to attack the opposing goal and on a corner kicked back, but caught 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 the ball at the bottom (1-1, 55e), before waiting long seconds for the VAR and French referee Clément Turpin to confirm that he was not offside to let his joy burst out.
Not helped by the choice of their coach to wait for the first part of extra time to make his first change, when Emery had made his last two in the 88e, United exhausted themselves in a barren second-half dominance.
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. The penalty shoot-out was interminable, the eleven Spaniards beating a David De Gea who therefore conceded the last 36 penalties or shots on goal that were addressed to him.
The height of misfortune for the goalkeeper who has had an eventful season, his too soft strike on the left of his alter ego Geronimo Rulli was easily deflected, depriving his team of a first trophy since 2017. It was a victory in the Europa League. , under the orders of José Mourinho. As for Villarreal, his first major trophy gives him a place in C1, instead of the Europa League Conference. Deserved.