The Europa League final will pit Sevilla, the great specialist, against Jose Mourinho’s Roma. A coronation of Juventus could have allowed the 3rd in Ligue 1 to qualify directly for the Champions League.
A week after the defeat of Alkmaar which allowed France to validate its 4 tickets for the Champions League 2024-2025, Ligue 1 took a big blow to morale on Thursday evening. We are talking more specifically about Lens and OM, who now know that in the event of 3rd place in L1, they will have to go through the 3rd qualifying round then the play-offs in order to access the group stage.
Only a victory for Juventus (current 2nd in Serie A) would have allowed the 3rd in Ligue 1 to qualify directly for C1. But the Bianconeri were too bad footballing to dismiss Sevilla FC in the semi-finals. After the 1-1 draw snatched by the Turinese at home, the Andalusians qualified in a Sanchez-Pizjuan in fusion for 120 minutes (2-1, ap).
The match was undecided for a long time and the Piedmontese even opened the scoring in the second half, by Dusan Vlahovic, with Adrien Rabiot as the decisive pass (65th). Suso equalized in the wake of a huge strike (71st) and, at the start of extra time, Erik Lamela scored with a fine header (95th). For Sevilla FC’s 7th C3 final (and all that since 2006).
Mourinho for a 6 out of 6?
Sevilla will challenge Roma on May 31 in Budapest. Winners 1-0 in the first leg, the Giallorossi spent their return match defending on the field of Bayer Leverkusen, for a sufficient 0-0. Moussa Diaby and his teammates had many opportunities but notably fell on a great Rui Patricio.
José Mourinho thus offers his 6th European final. For a legendary 6 out of 6? The “Special One” has already won the Champions League twice (Porto and Inter), the Europa League twice (Porto and Man United) and the Conference League (with Roma last year).