Youssef En-Nesyri meets the best goalkeeper in the world, Manuel Neuer
There is nothing to reproach the players of Sevilla FC for. They made a great physical effort. They gave a great image. But the champion was the German team, which dominated the match. Sevilla had a great opportunity to win the continental title, although Youssef En-Nesyri was not lucky on this occasion.
This year's first official match for Sevilla and no less than against European champions Bayern Munich, in the final of the European Super Cup and with extra time included.
Sevilla had taken the lead in the scoreboard, 13th minute penalty. A good pass from Navas, who at 34 is at an impressive level, and a perfect save from Ocampos for Rakitic to control with his chest and Alaba to knock him down. Ocampos would convert him.
The German team responded quickly. Minute 34, another great save this time from Lewandowski and Goretzka ties the game.
En-Nesyri, Moroccan striker born in Fez, came out in the second half in the 56th minute, by De Jong. He had the best chances for Julen Lopetegui's team. Sevilla, always inferior to Bayern, fought and played the match of you to you to the German team.
In the 89th minute was the key; Navas, the Sevillian captain, holds the ball very well in a counterattack and gives a magnificent pass to En-Nesyri that leaves him alone in front of the German goalkeeper, who became big, very big, and pulled out an incredible right hand to avoid Sevilla's goal. Youssef with the left hand tried to find the right post of the German goalkeeper, but he did not succeed.
A moment of the match in which it would have been practically impossible for Bayern to have equalized that 1-2. Later in the extra time another Sevilla's counterattack; again En-Nesyri, he cuts very well the German defender and crosses this time with the right. Again Neuer almost impossible to get out with his right leg a ball that all Sevilla fans sang as a goal.
Two clear chances to score and the law of football that says "when you forgive.... to lose". If you add to this the best goalkeeper in the world, Manuel Neuer, and a whole Bayern Munich, very complicated. In addition to this, there are the departures of Reguilon and Éver Banega's team, two undisputed headlines and those who stood out most last season.
The Moroccan player is defeated for not having converted the two clear chances to score, but that's football. At 23 years old he is young and will be able to score many more goals and give other joys.
Although there are those who criticize him for missing such clear-cut chances after costing 22 million euros. Football has these things. In tenths of seconds you can go from hero to villain. If En-Nesyri had scored in the 89th minute, he would be the hero of the Andalusian team today and would be on the front page of every sports newspaper. On the other hand, we have Manuel Neuer as a hero, a player who has already proven himself and possibly the best goalkeeper in the world along with the athletic Jan Oblak.
After all this, already in extra time, Javi Martinez scored a goal from Bono, who had played a very good game, but this time he was not very lucky in the clearance. The Estella player placed it well out of his reach.
Go out and kiss the saint. Javi Martínez says goodbye to Bayern with a definitive goal in the final of the European Super Cup. It seems that we will see him in the Spanish League, in the team that led him to success: Athletic Bilbao.
Returning to Sevilla, perhaps Lopetegui's changes were too conservative. He didn't count on Munir El Haddadi for a minute and neither did Oscar, a recently signed player from Real Madrid CF who played the last few years at Leganés and who contributes a lot offensively. He retired De Jong and Suso and only took out En-Nesyri to support Ocampos, who played a very complete game, but who in the end noticed the fatigue.
In short, a Seville that stood up and a Bayern that, with much suffering, won another European title, this time being superior.