Dybala returns to light up Rome, but that’s not enough. Mancini pays dearly for two decisive mistakes. Stoic Matic and Smalling, Wijnaldum new Julio Baptista. Sevilla opaque but cloaked in invincibility: it is the seventh time it has reached the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup/Europa League, and it is the seventh time it has triumphed.
SEVILLE
“Bono” Bounou 8: a lot of confidence and three decisive saves, on Belotti and on penalties from Mancini and Ibanez. Just enough to raise the cup, and sorry if it’s not enough;
Jesus Navas 6: the historic captain of the Andalusians wins the match against Spinazzola on points. On his side Sevilla grind more (from the 94th minute moniel 6: in six months he signed the decisive penalty for the World Cup for Argentina and for the Europa League for Sevilla as a substitute. What more could you ask for?);
Going 5: he falls asleep badly on the Roma goal. Race with many, too many inaccuracies;
Gudelj 6: rude and always tightrope bouncer. With sudden advances he tries to prevent Dybala from putting the ball on the ground, but the Argentine is a complicated client. Against Abraham he has an easy life (from 120′ Marcao sv);
Alex Telles 6: called to replace the disqualified Acuna, as long as Dybala is on the pitch he remains very staid. He raises the pace and center of gravity in the second half, trying to light up the very blocked side lanes (from the 94th minute Rerik 6: enters to contain Zalewski’s exuberance, ends up getting him booked with one of his forays);
Rakitic 6.5: the alarm rings for his team with a shot from outside in the first half ending, which hits the post. In the context of a game that was nothing short of destructive, try to play football and make its quality count;
Fernando 6: he has no serious errors on the scoresheet, but he never accelerates limiting himself to the longest homework in history (from 120′ Jordan sv)
Ocampos 6.5: comes on at times in the traffic of the Giallorossi defense. But it propitiates Mancini’s own goal and converts his penalty. Decisive episodes, in a game literally built on them;
Torres 5: placed between the lines, it disappears in the traffic of the Grande Raccordo Anulare. Mendilibar takes him off at half-time before seeing him run over (from 46′ cover slip 5.5: the ex Roma never really finds the right starting point. Responds present to penalty shots)
Gil 5.5: he tries and varies, but in the end he always comes up with little (from 46′ Breast 5.5: he doesn’t do so much better than his partner as to deserve the pass. He also doesn’t miss from the penalty spot)
En-Nesyri 5: Smalling takes it over and makes it disappear from the game. He, center forward from attacking depth, with no spaces to attack, finds himself lost and confused;
All. Mendilibar 6: the Basque coach, the third of the season for the Andalusians, gets enough because at the end of the day he wins the game. A quarter of an hour of pace raised by his team at the turn of the interval is “enough” for him, where Sevilla put Roma in the corner and resume the draw before the match becomes a new Leverkusen. For the rest, the feeling remains that he repeatedly fell into Mourinho’s tactical and nervous traps, but in the final moment the greater lucidity and serenity of his players made the difference. For the rest, we like to believe, he took care of the inescapable fate of the Andalusians in the second European cup.
ROMA
Rui Patricio 5.5: reviewable on the only real save he is called to make in over 140 minutes of play. On penalties he saves one, but it’s the one to repeat because he moved too early. And RAI doesn’t even show it well due to a transmission problem. Literally: revisable;
Ibanez 5.5: he takes risks in more than one situation and devours himself on a huge occasion. But the match is a war and he, patched up for a cut in extra time, goes to the wedding. His mistake from the penalty spot was the last, fatal one of the Giallorossi’s match;
Smalling 7,5: it is the bastion of the Giallorossi entrenched camp. Wall all the masonry, bogging down En-Nesyri in a sludge of closures and advances. He hits the crossbar in the final, just to leave even more bitterness in the mouth;
Mancini 5: in the cue for Dybala he shows off his entire repertoire, from the duel won with malice to the technique with which he puts the through ball up to the reading of the game situation, with the distraction of the Andalusian defense and the passing track that opens up for a moment. But the clumsy and uncoordinated mistake with which he causes the own goal is one of those from a blue pencil. Of those that cost a final, at least as much as the other decisive mistake he commits, in penalty shots;
Steel 6: cautiously challenges Alex Telles, for a duel where both seem more committed to defending than attacking. Always diligent (since 90′ Zalewski 6: enters loaded to give energy to an exhausted team already before the infernal overtime);
Matic 7: remains stoically on the pitch until the 120th minute, while gasping for all of the overtime. He sews and patches in the midst of that organized chaos that reigns in front of the Roma defense, often joining the line of three to increase density. With the sword (or the saloon chair), but often also with the foil (from 120′ Bove sv);
Christian 6: as long as Sevilla remain waiting, their game runs on safe tracks. But the opening goal for him… “complicates” his life. The Andalusians raise the pressure, Roma lowers and he struggles to escape from the enemy’s clutches. He sorts balls as much as possible and directs his attempts at pressure. Decisive to breathe every now and then;
Spinazzola 5.5: he had a fight and a lot of running back and forth, but squeeze, squeeze a goal on 0-0 and Sevilla’s draw was born from his side. He fails to give the quality of the good times, which perhaps are now only a distant memory (from 105 ‘Llorente sv);
Pellegrini 5,5: that attempt to simulate in an action where he lost the moment to hit the net several times encapsulates his match. Except for a single flash, the assist for Belotti who was almost worth the goal (from 105′ El Shaarawy sv);
Dybala 7: he didn’t start from the quarter-final against Feyenoord lost 1-0, where he went out due to injury in the 26th minute. Since then, only a few remnants of the race. He plays back on his feet almost by force to give guidance to a Rome too in need of his talent. And he responds present, escaping Gudelj’s suffocating marking for half an hour by going to orbit in the area of a reviewable Badé. Left to cross and Giallorossi forward, but it won’t be enough. He comes out exhausted halfway through the shot, and the light slowly goes out (from 68 ‘ Wijnaldum 4.5: it is the first substitution, almost obligatory, chosen by Mourinho. And in fact he leaves his team in ten for over an hour, making practically every ball played wrong. A test of slothful, with vibes of Juliobaptistiana memory);
Abraham 5: Mourinho assigns him the usual hellish match, serving and protecting Dybala. But he really takes too many, too few. His only shot on goal (in scrum) smacks a lot of a missed goal, even if Ibanez did worse in the same action (from the 75th minute Belotti 5.5: Bono denies him the goal that would have earned him the redemption of a complicated season to say the least. That Taylor doesn’t even grant him the corner on that blocked shot has something malignant about it);
All. Mourinho 5,5: to try to win his sixth European final, he puts his favorite match on the plate. He stuff for strong hearts and very strong stomachs. A quarrelsome, edgy, unspectacular match, with a more or less well-placed team with all the starters on the pitch, albeit to be patched upthe. A game played on the war of nerves, on scorched earth and on the qualitative play of the single. He finds the latter with Dybala, and seems to win the first because in the end Sevilla show themselves more from the parts of the fourth official than from those of Rui Patricio. But the technical episode punished him with Mancini’s mistake. And there, faced with a race inertia that is about to elude him, he no longer seems to have any weapons at his disposal. Either due to lack of resources, lack of expendable men, or a renunciation of the constructive aspect of the game that he has embraced for some time to the point of having made it an object of worship. Roma play to take it to penalties hoping for an episode before transcending into the metaphysical sphere of penalty kicks. But it is all the more on alchemy that the eternal law of the Europa League is valid, against which Smalling’s ball (crossbar in the final) and penalties by Mancini and Ibanez (save and post) are printed: eight teams start from the quarter-finals and in the end Sevilla wins.
2023-06-01 07:53:36
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