Madrid May 27 :It was a night to remember for Villarreal as they rallied onto beat Manchester United in a nerve-wracking penalty shootout to clinch their first-ever European silverware. The Yellow Submarines got the better of the Red Devils as the penalty shootout ended with an 11-10 scoreline as it was only United’s glovesman David de Gea who missed his shot from the spot. The hard-fought match was earlier ended 1-1 after the extra time as Gerard Moreno and Edinson Cavani were the goalscorers for their teams. This was Unai Emery’s 4th Europa League crown won as a manager.
The first half saw Manchester United dominating proceedings with their possession game but couldn’t squeeze in the final pass to get a breakthrough. Villarreal duo of Raul Albiol and Pau Torres were rock solid with the Yellow Submarine maintaining a deep line at the back.It was in the 29th minute when Dani Parejo’s pinpoint free-kick, went through the United defence and Gerard Moreno who has unmarked by Victor Lindelof made no mistake in poking it from close range. Unai Emery’s men went into the break with a solitary lead.United bounced back in the second half courtesy of an Edinson Cavani goal in the 55th minute of the finale. From a Luke Shaw corner, the ball wasn’t cleared away properly by the Villarreal defense and it eventually fell to Cavani, who coolly slotted it past the Argentine Rulli and equalised for United. It was a comparatively better United performance, as they churned out a string of chances in the second half, the best one falling to Marcus Rashford when he put Bruno Fernandes’s cross wide. It was an excellent cross from Bruno Fernandes and Rashford only had Rulli to beat but missed the goal by quite a margin.
We didn’t see much of Bruno Fernandes and Rashford in the match as Cavani was the busiest on the pitch dropping deep when it was required and orchestrated counter-attacks upfront. Mctominay was brilliant among the midfielders. Both sides held onto till the 90th minute for a 1-1 draw. It was an uneventful extra time as neither of the sides managed to get a winner.
It was all down to the dreaded Penalty-Shootouts to decide the outcome. It was a long shootout as it tested the nerves of not only the players but also the fans. The Spanish outfit converted all 11 of their spot-kicks whereas United was one short as David de Gea’s weak shot was expertly thwarted by Geronimo Rulli.
? Villarreal = 2021 Europa League winners! ?#UELfinal pic.twitter.com/a9ewWhe5am
— UEFA Europa League (@EuropaLeague) May 26, 2021