If Saturday’s Champions League final is going to generate more drama than its competitive younger brother did on Wednesday night, events in Portugal at the weekend are going to be nothing short of ludicrous. Above Image ( Gdansk Stadium ) – Jakub Murat (Muri), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Because that is exactly how you could describe the unfolding of this year’s Europa League final and for those neutrals who love the lottery of a penalty shootout, they would have possessed a winning ticket for this encounter.
Before the drama from 12 yards unfolded, Manchester United and Villarreal played out 120 minutes of largely frustrating football. Frustrating for United, because they could not break down the opposition, while Villarreal were largely doing the frustrating themselves.
In a competition that is synonymous with Unai Emery, the master Europa League tactician once again got his final game plan in good shape and this was evident, when the Yellow Submarine took a first half lead.
With just under 30 minutes on the clock, Villarreal drew first blood and with ex-QPR midfielder Dani Parejo on hand to provide an assist, it was left to Gerard Moreno to earn himself a goal he will never forget.
One that in all honesty, was rather soft for United to concede and perhaps David De Gea’s failure to keep the ball out the net, was an unknown precursor to the spectacular events that unfolded later on.
With United behind at the interval, they had to find a way back in the game and if that were to be the case, the Red Devils would be required to show more in the way of impetus. Thankfully for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men, that was precisely what happened.
Parity would be restored just 10 minutes after the restart and although there was something of a nervy wait because of a VAR check, Uruguayan forward Edinson Cavani would not be denied an equaliser.
Which meant come the end of normal time, things were all square and after 30 additional minutes, the deadlock could still not be broken. An impasse that meant one thing and one thing only, a penalty shootout was now subsequently required.
Of course, this was not your usual penalty shootout, as the standard of efforts were nothing short of incredible and for each of the first 20 efforts, a collective set of nerves was held in front of the rapturous Villarreal supporters.
While those supporters also lent their voice to goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli and tasked with taking a sudden-death penalty of his own, his offering from 12 yards was just a good as each of his Villarreal teammates.
Which meant if David De Gea were to match his goalkeeping counterpart, the cycle of penalty takers would loop round for a second time. Score and those who think they are done for the night are back in action, miss and United spurn the opportunity to win some much-needed silverware.
In what can only be described as a rather meek effort, Rulli was on hand to palm away De Gea’s attempt at continuing the penalty drama and in that single moment, Villarreal were crowned winners of this season’s Europa League trophy.
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