Villareal win dull affair settled on by marathon penalty shoot-out

By Ben Browning


Published: May 26, 2021 11:02 pm

Last Updated: May 26, 2021 11:05 pm

A dull affair saved by a penalty marathon

Won a dull affair that was ultimately settled on penalties.

Gerard Moreno gave Villareal the lead against the run of play in the first half after the Red Devils switched off from a set-piece. Manchester United dominated the ball but failed to do anything with it and relied on Edinson Cavani reacting fastest to a deflection to equalise.

The game petered on, with both sides looking clueless as to how to break each other down. The result was that penalties looked inevitable from shortly after the hour mark, and so they arrived.

Both sides scored their five spot-kicks, meaning that the tie went to sudden death. As emotions continued to spiral, neither side seemed likely to miss, and at 10-10, it felt as if it could go on forever.

It had to end in heartbreak for someone, however, with David De Gea’s spot-kick saved by his opposite number and sending the Villareal fans in the stadium into pandemonium.

Unai Emery and Villarreal win the shoot-out. The Europa League is theirs. ?#UEL pic.twitter.com/CHZFabyY8X

— VBET UK (@VBET_uk) May 26, 2021

Ole’s odd substitutes:

Whilst Unai Emery made all six of his available substitutes, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer chose not to make a change until the first half of extra time, and only made changes late in the piece to re-order his penalty takers, with Juan Mata and Alex Telles both coming on late in the second half of extra time.

It appeared as though both managers were happy to play for penalties, with Solskjaer’s lack of proactivity on the bench matched by Emery’s proactivity, which saw him remove a striker and replace him with a defensive midfielder with the score still at 1-1.

Marcus Rashford in particular looked well off the pace, and was lucky to survive the entire game despite an all-around poor performance, compounded by seemingly picking up a knock in the dying seconds of the game.

Questions will be asked about Ole’s decision surrounding substitutes and his desire to win the tie in normal time, but the loss means that his trophy hoodoo lives on, which is unacceptable for a Manchester United manager.

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Premier League table

#	Team	MP	D	P
1	Manchester City FC	38	51	86
2	Manchester United FC	38	29	74
3	Liverpool FC	38	26	69
4	Chelsea FC	38	22	67
5	Leicester City FC	38	18	66
6	West Ham United FC	38	15	65
7	Tottenham Hotspur FC	38	23	62
8	Arsenal FC	38	16	61
9	Leeds United	38	8	59
10	Everton FC	38	-1	59
11	Aston Villa FC	38	9	55
12	Newcastle United FC	38	-16	45
13	Wolverhampton Wanderers FC	38	-16	45
14	Crystal Palace FC	38	-25	44
15	Southampton FC	38	-21	43
16	Brighton & Hove Albion FC	38	-6	41
17	Burnley FC	38	-22	39
18	Fulham FC	38	-26	28
19	West Bromwich Albion	38	-41	26
20	Sheffield United FC	38	-43	23

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Player	Team	Goals
Kane, Harry	Tottenham Hotspur FC	23
Salah, Mohamed	Liverpool FC	22
Fernandes, Bruno	Manchester United FC	17
Son, Heung Min	Tottenham Hotspur FC	17
Bamford, Patrick	Leeds United	17
Calvert-Lewin, Dominic	Everton FC	16
Vardy, Jamie	Leicester City FC	15
Watkins, Ollie	Aston Villa FC	14
Gundogan, Ilkay	Manchester City FC	13
Lacazette, Alexandre	Arsenal FC	13
Wilson, Callum	Newcastle United FC	12
Ings, Danny	Southampton FC	12
Wood, Chris	Burnley FC	12
Iheanacho, Kelechi	Leicester City FC	12
Rashford, Marcus	Manchester United FC	11
Mane, Sadio	Liverpool FC	11
Pereira, Matheus	West Bromwich Albion	11
Bale, Gareth	Tottenham Hotspur FC	11
Zaha, Wilfried	Crystal Palace FC	11
Sterling, Raheem	Manchester City FC	10

Player	Team	Red Cards	Yellow Cards
McGinn, John	Aston Villa FC	0	12
Gallagher, Conor	West Bromwich Albion	0	11
Maguire, Harry	Manchester United FC	0	11
Phillips, Kalvin	Leeds United	0	10
Hojbjerg, Pierre	Tottenham Hotspur FC	0	9
Milivojevic, Luka	Crystal Palace FC	1	8
Lundstram, John	Sheffield United FC	1	8
Luiz, Douglas	Aston Villa FC	0	8
Holgate, Mason	Everton FC	0	9
Bissouma, Yves	Brighton & Hove Albion FC	1	8
Soucek, Tomas	West Ham United FC	1	7
Shaw, Luke	Manchester United FC	0	8
Xhaka, Granit	Arsenal FC	1	7
Bellerin, Hector	Arsenal FC	0	8
Andersen, Joachim	Fulham FC	1	7
Egan, John	Sheffield United FC	1	7
Hayden, Isaac	Newcastle United FC	0	8
Dallas, Stuart	Leeds United	0	7
McGoldrick, David	Sheffield United FC	0	7
Reid, Bobby	Fulham FC	0	7

Player	Team	Assists
Kane, Harry	Tottenham Hotspur FC	14
Fernandes, Bruno	Manchester United FC	12
De Bruyne, Kevin	Manchester City FC	11
Son, Heung Min	Tottenham Hotspur FC	10
Grealish, Jack	Aston Villa FC	10
Rashford, Marcus	Manchester United FC	9
Raphinha	Leeds United	9
Vardy, Jamie	Leicester City FC	8
Mane, Sadio	Liverpool FC	8
Harrison, Jack	Leeds United	8
Werner, Timo	Chelsea FC	8
Gross, Pascal	Brighton & Hove Albion FC	8
Cresswell, Aaron	West Ham United FC	8
Pereira, Matheus	West Bromwich Albion	7
Sterling, Raheem	Manchester City FC	7
Firmino, Roberto	Liverpool FC	7
Ward-Prowse, James	Southampton FC	7
Eze, Eberechi	Crystal Palace FC	7
Alexander-Arnold, Trent	Liverpool FC	7
Robertson, Andrew	Liverpool FC	7

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