Europa League
Spanish side overcome Manchester United after marathon penalty shootout
In the end, after an increasingly preposterous penalty shootout, there was an air of inevitability about the denouement. As 21 penalties in a row were scored, the mind began to play tricks. What did a missed penalty look like? Was it even possible to miss them? Or was this some sort of purgatory, Villarreal and Manchester United whacking penalties into a net in Gdansk, forever?
And then it came down to the two goalkeepers. On the one hand Rulli, Villarreal’s second choice, a man many had expected to be left out for Sergio Asenjo. It is an increasingly familiar conundrum of the cup keeper: it’s all very well to give your reserve pitch-time in the early rounds, but at what stage do you bring in the number one? For Unai Emery, it was never. He showed faith in Rulli, and was thoroughly vindicated. Rulli had never taken a penalty before, but lashed in his kick: 11-10. Only David De Gea remaining for a perfect set, every player on the pitch converting.
Back in 2006, when Villarreal faced Arsenal in a Champions League semi-final, a missed penalty proved decisive. Juan Roman Riquelme, a rare look of anxiety on his always gloomy face, had never looked like beating Jens Lehmann. This time, it was the other way round: David De Gea, with the air of a doomed llama, side-footed his effort, Rulli saved, and Villarreal had the first major trophy in their 98-year history.
Which immediately forced the question: why was De Gea still on the pitch? Perhaps changing a goalkeeper before a shootout, even after Louis van Gaal’s introduction of Tim Krul against Costa Rica at the 2014 World Cup, remains an outlandish move, but it was one that was being openly talked about. De Gea had not saved any of the previous 25 penalties he’d faced over the past six years, whereas Dean Henderson had saved eight of the 19
he’d faced in his career. Solskjaer, having not made a substitution until the tenth minute of extra-time, still had one left to make. It proved a decisive omission.
To judge him on that alone, perhaps, would be unreasonable, but he was similarly frozen by indecision in not replacing Fred before he was sent off against Paris Saint-Germain in December. And, on a more structural level, again his inability to construct a side capable of attacking fluently against teams who sit deep was exposed. On the break, United excel, which is how they were able to beat Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain and RB Leipzig, and why their away record was so good in the Premier League this season. Against deeper-lying teams they are reliant on great individuals to do great things, which is how Crystal Palace, Sheffield United and Fulham were able to frustrate them.
United may have picked up eight more points in the league this season than last, but it’s very hard to say that progress is to do with anything more than the acquisition of Edinson Cavani, whose penalty-box instincts brought the equaliser against Villarreal. A poacher stealing an equaliser as the ball ricocheted around the box after a corner inevitably raised memories of United’s Champions League win over Bayern Munich, played 22 years to the day before this final.
But this time there was no second goal. Villarreal were comfortable and after surviving a scare when Marcus Rashford prodded wide probably looked the more likely to score in extra-time. This was a classic Emery performance, dogged and well-organised, and with a threat on the counter and from set-plays. Villarreal’s goal, poked in by Gerard Moreno, his 30th of the season to take his tally for the club to a record-equalling 82, was the result of a well-planned free-kick routine.
Planning and organisation are everything to Villarreal, a club from a city of 50,000 people who were transformed when Fernando Roig bought them 24 years ago. He was not in Gdansk, denied access to the stadium by UEFA having tested positive for COVID two weeks before the final, in spite of the fact that he has received the vaccine and subsequently tested negative with two PCR tests.
David De Gea had not saved any of the previous 25 penalties he’d faced over the past six years
He was waiting for the players at the airport after the flight home though, ready, after four defeats in semi-finals, to celebrate a trophy at last.