SEven the otherwise rather gnarled coach Antonio Conte was downright exuberant in the end. “The players deserve praise. It was a super performance, ”said the Inter Milan coach after the 5-0 gala in the Europa League semi-finals against Shakhtar Donetsk. “We played in such a way that Schachtar looked like an average team.” After knocking out Bayer Leverkusen, the last German club in the competition, in the quarter-finals, the final is against FC Sevilla.
On Friday, Inter will have the last chance to avoid a whole decade without a title. Most recently they won the national cup in 2011, the year before they celebrated their sixth European Cup triumph with a 2-0 win in the final against Bayern Munich in the Champions League. Seville goes into the race as the record winner of the competition in the match in Cologne. But after the impressive performance against Donetsk, the Italians also take a record into the first final of a European Cup final tournament.
Because the level of success in Milan in Düsseldorf has been unique so far. A 5: 0 in a semi-final of the Europa League or the previous UEFA Cup competition had never happened before Monday. Even though there was usually a round trip of all pairings. In the entire European competition there was a 5-0 semi-final 31 years ago: At that time, Inter’s city rivals AC Milan defeated Real Madrid in the European Cup with the same result after a 1-1 first leg – and then also won the final against Steaua Bucharest clearly 4-0.
An important building block for Inter’s success on Monday was once again top striker Romelu Lukaku. Although Schachtar initially acted without luck for a long time, after Lautaro Martínez (19./73.) And Danilo D’Ambrosio (64.) had put his team comfortably in the lead, he then scored twice (78./84.). This makes the Inter striker the first player to have scored at least one goal in ten consecutive Europa League games. And with 19 goals is now also the most successful Belgian in this competition.
Lukaku only joined Inter from Manchester United last summer. And on Friday he could finally awaken memories of his glorious predecessor, the Brazilian Ronaldo. The Brazilian star player of the 1990s, two-time world champion and three-time world footballer, scored a total of 34 competitive goals in his debut year for the Milanese in 1998 – and ultimately won the UEFA Cup with the club. It was the last title in this competition to date. Lukaku has had 33 competitive goals since Monday.
But before the dreams skyrocketed, the this time so euphoric Conte warned his team against cockiness. “We shouldn’t overestimate the result,” he said: “Many of us are experiencing a game like this for the first time, Seville has a lot of experience in it.” The Andalusians have won the competition three times since it was renamed the Europa League in 2009, five times since 2006 .
.
