Tears with the taste of revenge. Humiliated by two consecutive sackings of the Spanish selection and then Real Madrid in 2018, coach Julen Lopetegui has found the strength to rebuild to hoist Sevilla FC to their 6th Europa League coronation on Friday. For the first club title of his coaching career, the former Basque goalkeeper, mocked for not having succeeded on some of the most prestigious benches on the continent, did things in a big way, taking revenge on his detractors with this title in C3. And what revenge! Recruited last summer to rebuild an entire team with his own hands, Lopetegui (53) started from a blank page.
Sevilla deplored about twenty departures and as many arrivals in the summer 2019 transfer window, with poker shots like Jules Koundé, Lucas Ocampos and Diego Carlos, recruited in L1 and become pillars of the beautiful Sevillian season. With the emblematic sporting director Monchi, the Basque technician has created a united group, tight in defense and daring in attack, to reach new heights. No one will be able to take away this success, built around him and his ambitious project. After an exceptional run where Sevilla FC dismissed AS Roma, Wolverhampton, Manchester United and Inter Milan on Friday in the Europa League final (3-2), Lopetegui did not hesitate to take risks, because he knew the reward was worth it.
"Lopetegui's masterpiece"
The daily As"He has distilled his daring and intelligence", sums up the sports newspaper As Saturday, in a tactical article entitled: "The masterpiece of Lopetegui". The Basque technician did not hesitate to establish a high and aggressive pressing, even if it means exposing himself to the dazzling cons of the Lukaku-Lautaro pair, not up to the task on Friday night, and he dared to ask for bold raises from his players, despite pressure from Inter. “Against Manchester United (in the semi-finals) he offered a master's in resilience, hanging on to the imperial performance of goalkeeper Bono. Against Inter, he overcame the suffering of seeing himself close to the title but physically at the limit. He has surpassed everything, "summed up Elias Israel, the former director of the sports newspaper Marca, in a column in As." Now no one can argue that he is one of the best coaches today, "said affirmed the sports daily.
Very moved at the final whistle, Lopetegui, in his black polo shirt embroidered with the Sevillian crest, no longer had enough of his hands to mop up the sobs that flowed from his red eyes, as he made his way towards his group of players who would soon make it spin in triumph in the air. “Resilience is that: being able to live with difficulties, and overcome them. This is the characteristic of a champion. We deserved to win this match. It's a huge joy for me, ”said the coach, very moved at the microphone of Movistar + after the match on Friday evening.
Two evictions that hurt a lot
This emotion perhaps comes from the bumped course of this former Barça and Real goalkeeper, son of a Basque force practitioner and renowned stone lifter from the Basque Country: in a few months in 2018, Lopetegui was brutally dismissed from the Spain team, humiliated in mondovision the day before the World Cup 2018 for having secretly recorded his departure to Real Madrid. Then he was ousted from the White House, weighed down by a series of poor results in the fall of 2018, just four months after his appointment.
"A whole country cried with joy and pride with you," assured the Spanish sports newspaper As in its online edition on Saturday under the video of the coach in tears. “Julen got down on her knees with her arms in the air, and let herself be overcome with joy and cried with happiness. These tears reflected the happiness of what he is, a huge trainer who did not deserve this lying story and these unfair taunts, ”summed up Elias Israel in As, describing“ a great man ”. As and Marca summed it up: this coronation is “the glory of Julen Lopetegui. If there is a hero, it's him.
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