Africa-Press – Eritrea. Record holders Sevilla won their seventh UEFA Europa League title on Wednesday after the Spanish club beat Italy’s Roma 4-1 on penalties in Budapest. In the final at Puskas Arena, Roma drew first blood.
The Italian club’s Argentine forward Paulo Dybala scored the opener in the 35th minute after Gianluca Mancini sent a through ball from the center circle.
Sevilla leveled the match in the 55th minute when Mancini scored an own goal after a cross whipped by Jesus Navas. In the 75th minute, Sevilla’s Lucas Ocampos was down in the box, but after a VAR review, the referee overturned the original decision.
The match went to extra time after regular time ended 1-1. Near the end of the game, Roma defender Chris Smalling hit the crossbar. Neither of the teams could score the winning goal during 30 minutes, so the winner had to be decided by a penalty shootout.
Ocampos, Erik Lamela, Ivan Rakitic and Gonzalo Montiel scored for Sevilla. Montiel retook his penalty after a VAR decision to bring the 2023 Europa League trophy to Sevilla.
Meanwhile, Bryan Cristante scored for Roma in the penalty shootout. However, Roma duo Mancini and Roger Ibanez each missed their penalties. Sevilla previously won the UEFA Cup/Europa League in 2006, 2007, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2020, and on Wednesday, they extended their record to seven titles in this competition.
Roma unable to end ill fate in Europa League
Roma were beaten for a second time in this competition’s final as the club from the Italian capital lost the 1991 UEFA Cup final to Inter Milan. Roma head coach Jose Mourinho also lost his first major UEFA tournament final in his career. The experienced Portuguese coach previously clinched all five of the UEFA competition finals he reached.
He won the 2003 UEFA Cup (rebranded Europa League in 2009) and the 2004 UEFA Champions League title with Portuguese club Porto, guided Italian side Inter to their 2010 Champions League success, and bagged the 2017 Europa League trophy with England’s Manchester United before clinching the third-tier UEFA Europa Conference League trophy with Roma in 2022.
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