Jose Luis Mendilibar, a meritorious technician south of the Pyrenees, has taken 62 years to direct his first international tie and it seemed that he wanted to take as long to play a continental tournament again. The Basque coach, whose common sense has always been unanimously praised, perpetrated a Devilish lineup at Old Trafford, where Manchester United did what these clubs do to rivals who give facilities: burst it with two goals in a flash. However, without anyone quite knowing why, the mystique of the Europa League operated for the six-time champion to start in the final minutestwo own goals through, a draw that is pure gold.
The stamina of the strange Sevilla starting eleven did not reach a quarter of an hour. In short, he did not arrive at the minute, although a flag from the linesman prevented the goal scored by Sancho from going up on the scoreboard – a filtered pass between the two central defenders – after thirty seconds. Yes, it was worth the one that Sabitzer scored shortly after, embedded between Nianzou and Marcao, with a rebound included in the Brazilian. On the next play, Martial – who passed through Nervión as an Erasmus student – gave away one of those shares that made him pay almost one hundred million, danced his compatriot and put the Austrian midfielder alone in front of Bono. The heirs of Koundé and Diego Carlos, more than thirty million disbursed between them, were showing off. Nightmare. Huge bathroom and cadaverine smell.
The chances kept happening against Bono, while Sevilla did not take advantage of the facilities provided by the English, relaxed as in country tea, in defense. With Rakitic, Lamela and Oliver Torres in attack, plus the crazy Ocampos, it is difficult to create danger. As his Argentine predecessor did so many times, Mendilibar played without a striker because he preferred to save En-Nesyri for domestic battles and did not trust Rafa Mir. These inventions usually do not bring anything good. At half-time, the best thing was the result –short for Sevilla’s oceanic demerits– and the insecurity exuded by the local defense, which allowed a header from Nianzou at the exit of a corner kick repelled by De Gea with notable reflexes.
Jesús Navas came out at halftime with the idea of putting balls into the area, which was what the man from the palace did as soon as he grabbed the first one: her lifelong pass, low to the near post… without a sad striker to push her. Ten Hag, enticed by the four carts that closed the Sevilla axis, ordered a retreat to sentence the contras and Antony was about to achieve it, but his parabolic shot died on the crosshead. For the last meeting room, Suso and En-Nesyri came out, two of the few Sevilla players with a proven ability to hurt their opponents. The thing was strange, because United seemed to settle for 2-0 and Sevilla… almost as well. One didn’t want to spoil the night by conceding a goal, and the other, who had imagined himself painfully humiliated, was coming home with a dignified defeat.
Fernando still had to save, however, a shot from Malacia that slipped through. The Dutchman did hole it in the re-counter, when Navas ran down the right to try his lifelong center –yes, again close to the near post– and The leg of the left-back appeared to mislead De Gea. With all the changes made, Lisandro Martínez was injured and turned the center of the Mancunian defense into a festival of which En-Nesyri took advantage with a powerful header, which bounced off Maguire. He still wanted to make more blood for Sevilla in the long extension, even if it had been too much. The solution, next Thursday at the Sánchez-Pizjuán, the cauldron in which the Red Devils must burn.
Plague of casualties for the return
Manchester United made a tie that will be played at Pizjuán extremely complicated with several serious casualties. Rushford and McTominay, injured, already missed yesterday’s game and it doesn’t seem like they are in a position to play in Seville, especially the striker. In addition, his starting center-back pair, Varane and Lisandro Martínez, left the field on a stretcher with a very bad prognosis in both cases, especially the Argentine, and his football regulator, Bruno Fernandes, was alert and saw a yellow card that will result in a suspension match. The black magic of the king of competition takes its toll on rivals.