A wild Europa League final ended with this stop on David de Gea.
SoccerBy Andrew Bucholtz on

One of the wilder finishes in sports in a while came in the UEFA Europa League final Wednesday, where Villareal beat Manchester United 11-10 on penalties (following a 1-1 draw at the end of regulation). That final shot, the only missed penalty, came from United keeper David de Gea. He was stopped by Villareal keeper Geronimo Rulli, who had scored himself on the previous shot.

Here’s a closer look at that:

There were some near misses before that, though, including this penalty from Manchester United’s Luke Shaw that was almost saved:

Regulation time saw Villareal’s Gerard Moreno score in the 29th minute before Manchester United’s Edinson Cavani equalized in the 55th. No further scoring meant that this went to 30 minutes of extra time, then to penalties.

This was Villareal’s first Europa League title. Their previous successes in Europe came from Intertoto Cup titles in 2003 and 2004. So this is quite the moment for them, and it also comes with entry into next year’s UEFA Champions League.

[CBS Sports; photo from UCL on CBS Sports on Twitter]

 

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

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