Villarreal claim first major European title

With up to 9,500 fans in attendance for the UEFA Europa League final in Gdansk, the emotions elicited by football were as pure and as raw as ever before.

At the end of 120 minutes of turgid action and a penalty shootout that added the excitement factor, however, it was the Villarreal contingent in Poland that were celebrating their side claiming a first-ever major European trophy.  

The build-up to the first of two showpiece events for European football’s governing body UEFA, hadn’t gone without a hitch. Before the game interviews with fans who had missed flights due to delayed COVID-19 tests were shared on social media, while on the ground, reports broke of local hooligans targeting travelling supporters.

On the night though, the passion on show from both factions was a wonderful tonic to the knockout stages which had been played behind closed doors.

Villarreal, a football team from a town of just over 50,577 people were taking on a side whose Old Trafford stadium holds 74,140 alone. In head coach Unai Emery, a man who had featured in the Europa League final four times previously, winning on three occasions with Sevilla, the Yellow Submarines felt they had an ace up their sleeve. Gerardo Moreno’s opening goal only fed the David vs Goliath narrative.

Yellow Submarine turns into Golden Submarine

Famed for his last-minute heroics in the famous come-from-behind Champions League final win over Bayern Munich in 1999, Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had experience to draw from. 

In the build-up to Wednesday night, he encouraged his charges to draw from the legendary knowledge of Sir Alex Ferguson, who had travelled with the side to Gdansk. Whether he himself drew inspiration from his former manager’s famed “hairdryer treatment” with his side 1-0 down at half-time was a matter for the post-match interview. 

Edinson Cavani levelled the scores soon after the restart, but while the up to 9,500 fans rose to the occasion making the noise of 50,000, the quality of football didn’t match their efforts. 90 minutes, extra-time and 21 penalties failed to separate the sides before Manchester United goalkeeper David De Gea saw his penalty saved by counterpart Sergio Rulli in the shootout.

The yellow shirts didn’t fill every seat in Gdansk, but their joy, tears and emotions were enough to fill multiple stadiums as they celebrated their side going their entire campaign unbeaten to become the sixth different team to claim the UEFA Europa League title.

An historic moment courtesy of Emery's magic touch which has seen him win four of the 12 titles since the inaugural campaign in 2009/10. Roughly 2,000 of the 50,577 inhabitants from the small town in the east of Spain were in attendance to witness Emery and his players pen a modern-football fairy tale. The night though, belonged to the emotional value they added.