EUROPA League
EUROPA FINAL: DISCARDED BY SPAIN AND REAL MADRID, LOPETEGUI FINDS SALVATION AT SEVILLA
Two years on from the embarrassment of being sacked as coach of his country on the eve of a World Cup, Julen Lopetegui has rebuilt his reputation to take Sevilla back to a sixth Europa League final in 14 years.
The Spaniards’ success in Europe’s second-tier competition is no longer a surprise despite the continued churn of players and coaches without the wealth of the continent’s superclubs.
However, a return to the Europa League final for the first time since 2016 on top of a first top-four finish in La Liga for three seasons, is sweet vindication for Lopetegui after a nightmare few months in 2018 threatened to derail his coaching career.
Hopes were high that the former Real Madrid and Barcelona goalkeeper could produce one last hurrah from Spain’s golden generation that had won three major tournaments from 2008 to 2012 ahead of the World Cup in Russia.
Spain were unbeaten in Lopetegui’s 20 games in charge of the national team, including impressive wins over Argentina, Italy, Belgium and eventual world champions France.
But he paid a heavy price for his own misjudgement and the politics of Spanish football as he accepted the role as Zinedine Zidane’s successor at Real Madrid days before the tournament got underway.
Furious Spanish federation president Luis Rubiales fired him two days before Spain’s opening match against Portugal in a move that did neither side much good.
Lopetegui returned home a haunted figure as he was presented at the Santiago Bernabeu just a day later and Spain limped out on penalties to Russia in the last 16 after winning just one match in four.
The decision to take the Madrid job was even more misguided as Lopetegui lasted just 14 games and was sacked again by late October.
Sevilla offered a shot at redemption, but also came with a risk. Monchi’s return as sporting director kicked off a huge turnover of the playing staff as 17 new players arrived and 28 departed over the course of the season.
Among those to leave were top scorers Wissam Ben Yedder and Pablo Sarabia and replacing them has proved problematic with Lucas Ocampos and Munir El Haddadi the only players to reach double figures for goals this season.
But Lopetegui has constructed a hard team to beat as is evidenced by a club record run of 20 games without defeat either side of a three-month shutdown due to coronavirus.
Only Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid had a better defensive record in La Liga this season and Bruno Fernandes’s penalty in the semi-final is the only goal Sevilla they have conceded in three knockout games since arriving in Germany against Roma, Wolves and Manchester United.
“There are always doubts until you really know the coach,” Monchi told Marca.
“Julen has pleasantly surprised me. Everyone told me that he was very professional and he’s won me over. When I see someone like him I fall in love, so I’m very happy to work with him.”
The team-spirit Lopetegui has fostered was clearly on show during the semi-final as Sevilla rode their luck, but showed no little heart to beat United 2-1 with a fraction of the budget of the English giants.
Despite the empty stands in Cologne, Sevilla were roared on by an enthusiastic crowd of substitutes, team directors and staff compared to the largely silent and bemused United contingent.
“We know we have created our own strong and loud support,” said Lopetegui of the encouragement from the sidelines.
“It was been a difficult but also a beautiful year,” he added on a first season in Seville that is now into its 13th month.
“The team has had the possibility to grow, overcoming obstacles, because of their hard work, solidarity and team spirit.”
Sevilla will need to be the better unit again in Friday’s final against another European giant with better individuals in Inter Milan.
But after five wins in five previous finals, Sevilla can never be underestimated in the Europa League.—
–AFP
Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim defended under-fire goalkeeper Andre Onana following the Cameroonian’s costly mistakes in his side’s 2-2 draw at Olympique Lyonnais in their Europa League quarter-final first leg on Thursday.
Onana allowed Thiago Almada’s free kick to squirm past him in the Groupama Stadium and was also at fault for Rayan Cherki’s last-gasp equaliser that denied United victory.
Since the start of last season, no Premier League club’s goalkeeper has made more errors leading to goals being conceded in all competitions than Onana.
“It can happen, if you play football, you play a lot of games, you can make mistakes,” Amorim said. “If you look at the season, I make more mistakes than them during these last games and these last months.
“The other thing is we have one more game to change everything and that should be our focus.
“The best thing is to look at the goals, all the actions that Andre had in the game, this is the best way to help any player, it’s to focus on the game, what happened, what we need to improve.”
United nonetheless remain unbeaten in this season’s Europa League — the only side to do so this term — after goals from Leny Yoro and Joshua Zirkzee put them on course for a potential victory.
The team, who are 13th in the English Premier League standings, still go into next week’s second leg in Manchester as favourites to book a spot in the last four.
“It was an entertaining game,” Amorim added. “We had some difficulty in the first half trying to press, because Lyon played in a different way. Then, in the middle of the first half and especially the second, we controlled the game.
“The second leg will be a different game. At home, our fans want us to press all the time.”
-Reuters
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Manchester United will be without defender Harry Maguire and midfielder Manuel Ugarte for Thursday’s Europa League last-16 clash with Real Sociedad, coach Ruben Amorim said, as he seeks to salvage an otherwise dire season.
The pair were left out of an already depleted squad after picking up injuries in last weekend’s penalty shootout defeat to Fulham that dumped them out of the FA Cup to compound the misery of lying 14th in the Premier League.
“We are being careful with them because at the moment we cannot afford to lose any more players for a long time,” Amorim told a press conference on Wednesday before the Europa League first leg game in Spain.
“We are taking care of them at Carrington (training ground) and they cannot play this game because it will be a greater risk.”
The coach, who joined United in November, stressed the importance of balancing youth development with the needs of the squad during a worsening injury crisis.
“I’m trying to cope with everything. When I do my squad, I’m trying to think about every aspect, of the formation of the (new) kids, of the squad and not if it will look really well with the fans and the media,” Amorim said.
Altay Bayindir, Tom Heaton, Jonny Evans, Kobbie Mainoo, Luke Shaw and Mason Mount remain on individual rehabilitation programmes.
Lisandro Martinez, who tore his anterior cruciate ligament, and Amad Diallo, who suffered an ankle ligament injury in training, are also sidelined.
-Reuters
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Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes scored a last-gasp winner to secure a 2-1 victory over Rangers in the Europa League group stage on Thursday and Tottenham Hotspur captain Son Heung-min struck twice in his team’s 3-2 win at Hoffenheim.
United climbed to fourth in the standings on 15 points going into the last round of matches, in a strong position to reach the knockout phase along with Spurs who are sixth with 14 points.
The English side broke the deadlock early in the second half when Rangers goalkeeper Jack Butland misjudged a Christian Eriksen corner, sending the ball into his own net.
Rangers fought back with an equaliser from substitute Cyril Dessers two minutes from time before Fernandes struck in added time to give United all three points.
In Germany, James Maddison opened the scoring for Spurs in the third minute and Son doubled the lead in a first half the visitors dominated.
Hoffenheim pulled one back in the 68th minute through Anton Stach’s counter-attack goal. Son restored Spurs’ two-goal lead in the 77th minute before the hosts’ David Mokwa scored to give his side late hope but the game ended in a narrow win for the English side.
Lazio stayed top of the standings with a commanding 3-1 home victory over Real Sociedad to become the first team to qualify for the round of 16.
Mario Gila struck after five minutes and when Sociedad’s Aihen Munoz was shown a second yellow card on the half-hour mark, Lazio immediately seized the advantage.
Mattia Zaccagni quickly doubled the lead and Taty Castellanos effectively ended the match with a third for the hosts. Ander Barrenetxea scored a late consolation goal for Sociedad.
Eintracht Frankfurt moved closer to securing a top-eight spot with a 2-0 home win over Hungarian side Ferencvaros thanks to second-half goals from Can Uzun and Hugo Ekitike. They are second in the standings with 16 points, three ahead of ninth-placed Galatasaray.
A late goal from Troy Parrott gave AZ Alkmaar a 1-0 home win over AS Roma and Olympiacos earned a 1-0 victory at Porto thanks to a late goal from Ayoub El Kaabi.
Dutch side Alkmaar can still reach the top eight with 11 points sitting in 14th place while Roma’s nine points place them 21st, close to the bottom of the playoff section.
Fenerbahce and Olympique Lyonnais played out an intense goalless draw in Istanbul, leaving the French side in a strong position to progress to fifth place in the group on 14 points.
-Reuters
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