Villarreal coach Unai Emery, a true specialist of the Europa League with his three titles, looks to enlarge his legend a little more in this European competition on Wednesday against Manchester United in their fifth final.
“His figure is very important in this path of the Europa League, he is a person with a lot of experience in this competition, a winner in this competition”, stated the defender of the ‘Yellow Submarine’ Raúl Albiol last week.
“Therefore, his knowledge and experience in these games will help the team,” added the former world champion with Spain in 2010.
The Basque coach faces his fifth Europa League final, after the four previous to those he arrived with Seville (2014, 2015, 2016) and with Arsenal in 2019.
Emery ended up lifting the trophy three times in a row with Sevilla and, although with Arsenal he ended up losing 4-1 against Chelsea, this defeat does not detract from his career in this continental competition.
The Yellow Submarine coach is already the history of the Europa League as the coach who has raised the trophy the most times, tied with the Italian Giovanni Trapattoni, who also won it three times in 1977, 1991 and 1993, when it was still the Cup of UEFA.
A win at the Gdansk Stadium on Wednesday against United would make him the only manager to win the Europa League four times.
GROW AND LEARN ‘
“We are very sorry about this competition, especially with some clubs. Sevilla gave me a lot in this competition. It made me grow and learn a lot ”, explained the ‘Yellow Submarine’ technician.
For the Basque coach, victory in the Europa League final would not only increase his legend in this competition, but would also open the doors to the Champions League next season.
By the way, the victory would allow Emery to break the British hegemony in Europe, after the Champions League final is a duel between Chelsea and Manchester City and the Europa League is against United.
The former coach of Seville, Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal, considers it “a challenge” to break that hegemony.
“Manchester United started as the main candidate to win this competition and has reached the end, we could consider ourselves candidates to compete in it and we have succeeded, and now we will have to trust ourselves,” Emery said last week, warning that ” it will be time to suffer ».
Considered a true football madman, Emery pampers every last detail in every game and in every training session and tries to instill his passion in the players to reach the top.
´´He is a coach who has a healthy ambition to win and he tries to instill that in the footballers in the teams where he has been. That desire that he has for success is something that infected me here at PSG, “said Uruguayan forward Edinson Cavani, when he was a coach at Paris Saint-Germain.
Now Emery will face his former pupil on Wednesday in Gdansk, where he will try to further enlarge his Europa League legend. AFP. (JL).