Sevilla Retain Uefa Cup

Espanyol 2 - 2 Sevilla AET (Sevilla Win 3 - 1 on penalties)

Glasgow city centre was turned into a fiesta yesterday as thousands of Spanish fans from Sevilla and Espanyol flooded into the city for the Uefa Cup Final at Hampden Park. However it was in Sevilla where the fiesta would have continued well into the early hours of the morning as Sevilla became only the second team to retain the Uefa Cup after Real Madrid did so in 1986.

Sevilla’s captain and keeper, Palop, lifts the Uefa Cup.

It was a thrilling game, fit for a major final, that saw Adriano open the scoring for Sevilla after 18 minutes with a lovely finish. That goal was wiped out by the help of a deflection from Alberto Riera only 10 minutes later. However, it was on 68 minutes when the final seemed to turn in Sevilla’s favour when Espanyol’s holding midfielder Moises was booked for a second bookable offence and was shown the red card. Before that Espanyol were in the ascendancy but they now had to shore up their defence to try to hold on to what they had. It worked, as the game went to extra-time.

However, it was Kanoute, the former West Ham and Spurs striker who, in the 105th minute, seemed to end the Espanyol resistance. Kanoute stole into the near post to poke in a low Navas cross. It looked like the game was there for the taking by Sevilla but they missed two more one on one situations with the Espanyol keeper, Iraizoz, who denied both Puerta and Alves.

More drama was to follow when out of nothing and with only 5 minutes remaining, the Espanyol substitute Jonatas equalised to take the Final to the drama of the penalty shoot-out. It was a fierce long range shot that seemed to take a slight deflection but the Espanyol players and fans didn’t mind, they suddenly had hope again!

Jonatas celebrates his equaliser in extra-time

However, after all their hard work clawing their way back into the Final and taking the game to extra-time and a shoot-out, Espanyol’s efforts from the penalty spot were awful.

It was the Sevilla captain, Palop, who had also made some excellent saves during the game that proved to be the hero and broke the Catalan hearts.

So, in a week’s time we will know who Sevilla will play at the beginning of next season for the Uefa Super Cup. Will it be Liverpool or AC Milan. Athens awaits!

The Soccer Blogger