Europa League semifinals
Sevilla FC 2-1 Manchester United
Inter Milan 5-0 Shakhtar Donetsk
Sevilla FC crushed Man United’s dream of reaching the Europa League final. The experienced Spanish La Liga side will play another final in this competition. The club has won a record five Europa League and will now face Serie A giants Inter Milan for an exciting matchup on Friday.
For Manchester United, the Europa League trophy was a clear objective after finishing in the Premier League’s top 4. Solskajer’s men dominated the match and were the first on the scoreboard thanks to a penalty converted by Bruno Fernandes. But the Andalusians came back in the game before the hour mark and sealed their victory in the last quarter of the match to complete the comeback victory and reach another Europa League final.
Solksjaer on the loss:
if you take your chances you’ll win comfortably but that’s not always the case in football. We had moments and spells in both halves where we could have and should have scored quite a few goals. But when you don’t take the chances it’s going to be hard. We have a young team – we had three years average less than them. I thought some spells today maybe showed that. This group of players will have to learn and get some consistency in the play. When we got the ball down and pressed and created counterattack chances it was scintillating at times. Their keeper had a fantastic game. It’s disappointing we didn’t score because we know we’ve got players who have got that quality.
On the second goal conceded:
“About experience… when you don’t get it you can’t stop, you’ve got to stick with the game. We know it’s our throw-in but it still ends up on the other side of pitch and they get a cross in so you can’t say that is the reason [why we conceded the equaliser].”
We definitely need to improve if you want to move up the table and take steps further in the cups. I’ve never had three semi-finals in one season and that [losing them all] is one of those things you’re disappointed with as well. We are working to improve what we have. We’ve had spells with injuries and we’ve had spells where players have played a lot. We’re always looking to improve the squad.”
Sevilla FC vs. Inter Milan
The Italian club finished second behind Juventus this season and looks to add its 4th piece of silverware in club’s history. The last time Inter Milan won it was in 2010 with Mourinho as head coach against Bayern Munich 2-0. 10 years later another opportunity comes knock on the door.
Coaches speak about the final
Inter Milan coach Antonio Conte
I have to compliment my lads, because we’ve managed to reach the final and cause a strong side in Shakhtar Donetsk, who have quality players, all sorts of problems in the process,” said Antonio Conte after the match.“We pressed them all over the pitch and did well to force them into chasing and defending. I’m very happy because our plan was the right one and the lads played in the right way. They deserve all the credit.”
’ve got a group of willing and great lads, and this is why we were able to finish our league campaign just one point behind Juventus with better statistics than our opponents. We wanted to be protagonists in the Europa League, and now we’re in the final. We’ll enjoy the result tonight, but tomorrow we’ll be thinking about Sevilla.”
Coach Sevilla, Lopetegui on the final
“Every day that goes by we’ll be better. Mentally the team will go into it well, excited, with desire, ambition and excitement to play in such an important match. They’ll have the legs to, we recover more every day. The excitement overrides any other less positive circumstance. The team has done a very good job physically, which has caused us to end the league the way we have”.
