Sevilla make Europa history, defeat Dnipro to capture back-to-back titles
WARSAW, Poland
For Sevilla, history and glory. For Dnipropetrovsk, a hollow sense that it had done what it could to win a victory that would have reverberated across Ukraine and that for a club of its stature, having to overcome the obstacles it did, even to reach the final was a remarkable achievement.
Spain’s Sevilla won the Europa League title for the second time in a row on Wednesday night, 3-2, and with the win, also made history as the first side to win two back-to-back Europa League/UEFA Cup titles. They earned a berth in the group stage of next year's UEFA Champions League to boot.
Bacca told www.uefa.com: "I want to dedicate this to God and my family in Colombia. This is something unique. I want to enjoy it. I was pleased to help the side with two goals."
Sevilla, in the end, was simply too good. Unai Emery, the 43-year-old coach, confirmed his immense promise, while Carlos Bacca, the 28-year-old striker, showed once again just how lethal he can be in front of goal, snaffling two chances with exemplary poaching instinct. Admirable as Dnipro's pluck was, and unexpected its recovery after falling 2-1 behind had been, Sevilla's was a deserved victory.
Around the streets of the old town in Warsaw during the afternoon, it was notable how many Dnipro fans had draped Ukraine flags over their shoulders. With the conflict in the Donbass, just 150 miles east of Dnipropetrovsk, still unresolved, this Europa League campaign has become a vehicle of Ukrainian patriotism. The pitch invasion that followed the semifinal victory over Napoli was characterized by its ecstatic abandon — a joy that went far beyond football.
Sevilla made all the early running and, for a brief time, it seemed the emotion of the occasion may have got to Dnipro, but the Ukrainians took the lead with their first attack. Dnipro’s game plan was always going to be to play reasonably directly and try to find space behind the Sevilla backline, and that was exactly how they struck, Nikola Kalinic flicking on Artem Fedetskiy’s long forward pass to Matheus and then advancing into the box to guide his header down and past Sergio Rico. Kalinic was only playing because a muscular injury limited Yevhen Seleznyov to a place on the bench, but the big Croatian, who joined Dnipro from Blackburn Rovers in 2011, offered a similar muscular threat.
Those early minutes, though, proved an accurate indication of what was to follow. Again and again the red waves crashed against the Dnipro backline. Jose Antonio Reyes, twisting and turning on the right, had shot just wide and Grzegorz Krychowiak drew a fine diving save form the excellent Denys Boyko with a header. Eventually, however, the Dnipro resistance had to crumble.
On the 28th minute, a corner was half-cleared and Krychowiak, to the delight of the Poles in the stadium, cracked in a low shot from just inside the box. Three minutes later, Sevilla had the lead as Reyes' pass was perfectly weighted for Carlos Bacca, the former bus-conductor from Barranquilla, as he beat the offside trap, ran on and rounded Boyko to score.
It seemed then that Sevilla would inevitably surge on to victory yet Dnipro found the resilience to fight back and the resourcefulness to change its game plan. Yevhen Konoplyanka drew a stretching, diving save from Rico with a curler as he performed his familiar trick of cutting inside off the left flank onto his right foot. It rounded off a stunning half of football by leveling, the veteran midfielder Ruslan Rotan caressing a free-kick over the wall and past Rico.
Konoplyanka’s contract will expire this summer and having turned down a move to Roma, he has stated his preference for playing in the English Premier League next season, with Tottenham and Liverpool both having expressed an interest in signing him. Sevilla's attacking intent had been signalled by the selection at right-back not of Coke but of Aleix Vidal, who often plays in midfield, with Reyes operating on the right side of a 4-2-3-1. As Konoplyanka became increasingly influential at the beginning of the second half, the need to counter his threat forced a change, Reyes who had been excellent, coming off for Coke, with Vidal pushing forward to take his place in the creative trident.
It was the other winger, though, who made the decisive impact. Vitol had had a quiet game when he seized on a half-blocked pass form Stephane Mbia and poked a pass through for Bacca with 17 minutes remaining. The Colombian let the ball come into his stride and jabbed it past Boyko. At that, Dnipro’s race was run, it’s emotional energy spent.
Given how it had built itself up, given the symbolic freight it had been loaded with as the war goes on in the Ukrainian east, it may be hard to find solace, but it had at least played its part in a thrilling game of football, the sort of match that, after the events in Zurich earlier in the day, provided a welcome reminder of just why, despite its leadership, football still provokes such passions.
Emery was delighted, if relieved, to see his side come through a testing 90 minutes on the right end of the scoreline. "It has been a lot of work," he said after the match. "The whole side worked very well. We've had difficulties in all of the games."
He added: "At halftime, we spoke about how this competition takes a lot out of you, and that we had to wait for our moment. We deserve this. We have to enjoy it."
Dnipro ended the game with concerns over Brazilian midfielder Matheus, who left the field on a stretcher after collapsing following a clash of heads, although it was later confirmed the damage was nothing more than a broken nose.
Coach Myron Markevych said: "Unfortunately today we allowed Bacca the chance to be aggressive. We made a lot of mistakes in defense. They [Sevilla] were more experienced, and I think that showed. But we tried to play our best game."
