Sevilla win 7th Europa League title with victory over Roma

Normal time and extra time were not enough to see AS Roma and Sevilla being separated as both teams head into penalty shootouts to decide the winner.

And the Spanish side maintained their dominance in this competition as they beat Roma 4-1 on penalties to claim their seventh Europa League title. The Spanish team overcame a 1-0 deficit to force penalties, which they successfully converted to win the match and the tournament.

Gonzalo Montiel, who converted a penalty to win the World Cup for Argentina, also converted to win his club team a championship. Drama ensued though, when he botched his first penalty kick and it had to be repeated after Roma custodian Rui Patricio was discovered to have encroached.

Montiel cooly slotted his penalty on the left on his second penalty attempt to break Jose Mourinho’s perfect streak in the UEFA competition finals. The La Liga giants have won both the UEFA Cup and the subsidiary tournament more times than any other team.

As the reward for winning the less prestigious Europa League, Sevilla frequently begins each season playing in the Champions League. However, the squad has a smaller budget than Real Madrid and Barcelona in Spain, which makes it difficult for them to compete with the best.

That was the situation this season, Sevilla moved down a division after finishing third in Group G behind Manchester City and Borussia Dortmund. After a seven-year drought, the team successfully defended its championship the following season after defeating Espanyol in a penalty shootout.

Then, under Unai Emery, Sevilla won the Europa League three times in a row, defeating Benfica, Dnipro, and Liverpool. Mendilibar, the coach of Sevilla, thinks that his team is the frontrunner because of their past success in the tournament and it continues to remain intact.

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