The devil wears white and red

No, they have not eliminated us all from Europe. We will always have Sevilla because Sevilla will always have the Europa League. The devil dressed this time in white and red so that the team of caste and courage, the one that never gives up, would impose the law of a tournament that will already have to be thinking about changing the name: Sevilla League. Manchester United was a lot United in Cologne but against the devil, and in this competition Sevilla is undoubtedly the devil, in hell you cannot fight. Here you no longer play under the rules of football, you play under the rules of Sevilla. Those that say that every time it reaches the fourth quarter, those from Nervión enter a mystical, heavenly dimension. A kind of wormhole that takes you without any relativity towards the title, whatever the circumstances. For now, you have taken Seville to another final. The sixth in the Europa League in 14 years. The twelfth continental, counting the Super Cup that will be played when UEFA and the pandemic allow it.

Solksjaer challenged Julio Iglesias himself. “I stumbled on the same stone again …”. It was the third semi-finals of the season for Manchester United, who in the previous two had decided to replace Sergio Romero for David de Gea in goal. What the hell, Solskjaer would think. The third time must be the charm. The dressing room gurus say that things like this can be turned against because certain codes of those mysterious dressing rooms are violated, which those of us who have not played professional football do not understand and will never understand. De Gea neither stopped nor stopped. They shot him three times and scored two goals.

Lopetegui acted in reverse: “You don't have to touch what works.” The Basque coach repeated eleven for the third time in three games, a fetish team that surprised in the round of 16 against Roma due to the inclusion, above all, of En Nesyri at the top of the attack instead of the Dutch Luuk de Jong, much more used by the Basque coach during the course, also after confinement. AND with Bono, hero against the Wolves, superhero last night. The Moroccan became a giant at the beginning of the second half, unapproachable under the three suits. Without him this new ending would not be understood.

It was the second English team in five days and the match started under the same coordinates for Sevilla. Rival pressure, hesitant exit, danger on the counter … and a penalty from Diego Carlos, to Rashford this time. Against the Wolves, Bono had stopped Raúl Jiménez. Bruno Fernandes, who He has scored 15 in a row with him, he did not forgive (0-1, 9 '). The Portuguese thing has been a real winter reinforcement. His vision of the game and ability between the lines are the perfect support to launch the devilish speed of Martial, Rashford and Greenwood, a stampede of buffalo as they face rival defenses. But the goal had awakened Lopetegui's team. Banega finally claimed the ball and called for a penalty when he was about to shoot; Ocampos ran into De Gea's gloves and Reguilón, a rocket on the left, finally found Suso at the far post for the man from Cádiz to shoot at pleasure (1-1, 26 ').

The match was physical to exhaustion, like a boxing match with no time to rest between rounds. Until Lopetegui and Solksjaer were bitten on the wing, the fourth official had to put peace. United scared every time he appeared in the Sevilla area. Sevilla threatened without just kicking. The pace became so infernal that even in the first half discount the teams stopped trying to exchange blows.

There was also no truce as soon as he returned from the dressing room, basically because of United. Bono sustained a tremendous English onslaught with four stratospheric interventions, three of them to Martial. Lopetegui tried to sustain the bleeding of rival occasions with a double change (De Jong, and Munir), which included surprise or not so much: removing his scorer, Ocampos, from the field, who had not come up with anything. As has happened so many times in recent times, the Basque coach's reading of the game was perfect until the game was changed. Sevilla indignantly claimed a hand from Bruno Fernandes in the barrier within the area and, shortly, Mute found Navas, the palace crossed to the area and De Jong executed (2-1 78 '). A goal set by two of the substitutions, an end of the match with Colonia turned into Nervión, amid the madness shouts of the 100 sevillistas of the expedition, which seemed 100,000. United had almost given up and what was left was played to the rhythm of the magician, that devil dressed in white and red: Éver Banega.