Sevilla Wins Europa League Final After Penalties: Mourinho’s First European Loss and Bad News for Ajax

In a compelling but often annoying final of the Europa League, Sevilla won against AS Roma after penalties. With seven final victories in the Europa League (and predecessor UEFA Cup), the southern Spanish team is the record holder.

It was certainly not a game that football fans will talk about at length years later. Due to the abundant injury time, the game lasted no less than 146 minutes, but because the game was constantly stopped, there was only 66 minutes of pure playing time.

Roma coach José Mourinho lost a European final for the first time. Previously, the 60-year-old Portuguese won the Champions League with Porto and Inter, the Europa League with Porto and Manchester United (at the expense of Ajax) and last year the Conference League (at the expense of Feyenoord).

The Roma players in particular stood out for their theatrical behavior and constant complaining to the referee. Mourinho was only too happy to stoke that fire from the dugout.

But the English referee Anthony Taylor had a good eye on it and treated no fewer than seven Roma players to a yellow card, including for a schwalbe (Lorenzo Pellegrini) and protesting (Bryan Cristante). Two of Mourinho’s assistants and the head coach himself were also yellow for protesting too fanatically.

A shot by Roma midfielder Leonardo Spinazzola at Sevilla goalkeeper Bounou was the only footballing highlight for a long time. That changed when Roma suddenly took the lead in the 35th minute.

Referee Taylor allowed play to continue after a minor foul in midfield. Gianluca Mancini sent teammate Paulo Dybala away with a simple but clean pass, the Argentinian finished coolly: 1-0.

The opening goal was the signal for Sevilla to come out of its shell. And that immediately resulted in opportunities against the close Roma defense. First, Fernando headed just over with a corner kick and in no less than seven minutes of injury time, Ivan Rakitic hit the post with a hard long shot.

After the break, Sevilla continued that line and led to 1-1 within ten minutes. A cross from captain Jesus Navas was worked into his own goal by Mancini.

Roma, now with substitute Georginio Wijnaldum between the lines, had to look for goals again and was close to it in an unadulterated scrimmage. Tammy Abraham and Roger Ibañez, among others, just missed the ball.

Fifteen minutes before the end, Lucas Ocampos (earlier this season mainly bench seat at Ajax) seemed to deserve a penalty for Sevilla. But after VAR intervention, Taylor ruled that defender Ibañez had touched the ball first and reversed his decision.

Substitute Andrea Belotti missed another good chance for Roma, making extra time inevitable. In that extra time, a second Dutchman came in with Sevilla defender Karim Rekik. Rick Karsdorp stayed on the bench with Roma for 120 minutes, but still got a yellow card for protesting.

The game was also almost continuously stopped in extra time. The second half of extra time therefore had no fewer than twelve minutes of injury time. At the very end, Chris Smalling headed on the crossbar on behalf of Roma.

Penalties had to decide in a game that started in May and ended after midnight in June. Mancini was once again the schlemiel. The defender who previously scored in his own goal now shot the ball at Bounou’s legs. Then Ibañez hit the post and Gonzalo Montiel scored the decisive penalty just like in the World Cup final.

The Argentinian initially missed, but was allowed to shoot again because the Roma goalkeeper came off his line too early.