WARSAW: Sevilla retained their Europa League title and lifted the trophy for a record fourth time amid a cascade of tears and ticker tape after securing a 3-2 victory over Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in Wednesday’s final.

Carlos Bacca claimed the plaudits with a superb double strike, including a late winner to decide a pulsating clash that began at a hair-raising pace with four goals in the first half.

It was an energetic end-to-end battle for most of the match. Nikola Kalinic had given Dnipro a dream start to the Ukrainian side’s first ever European final as he headed home the opener after just seven minutes.

Grzegorz Krychowiak and Bacca turned the game in Sevilla’s favour, but Ruslan Rotan’s free-kick sent the sides in level once more at the break and it looked like the Ukrainians might cause a stunning upset.

But Bacca scored the 73rd-minute winner off a pass from Vitolo when Dnipro’s defence struggled to clear the ball, settling the game for Sevilla and securing the trophy and a precious Champions League place handed to the winners for the first time as they go into the group stage.

Bacca’s strike was nearly overshadowed when Dnipro’s Matheus collapsed two minutes from time just after he had been involved in a clash of heads going up for a header.

Thankfully, though, the Brazilian was able to move as he was stretchered off to a rousing reception from the whole stadium and both sets of players.

“We want to be ambitious in terms of moving forward,” Sevilla coach Unai Emery said. “Obviously we want more but we now have more because we have the Champions League and we will enjoy that fully.

“We’ve had difficulties in all of the games. At half-time we spoke about how this competition takes a lot out of you, and that we had to wait for our moment. Given how hard we’ve worked we deserve this.”

Colombia striker Bacca, substituted before the end, broke down on the bench with the emotion of it all as the final whistle sounded and the celebrations began.

“[Bacca] has great skills and qualities and he’s an extraordinarily competitive player. He wants more and more. You can call it hunger. He doesn’t want to reach that ceiling,” Emery said. “He wants to be the best player in the Champions League next season, for example. That’s his objective.”

Dnipro coach Myron Markevych also paid tribute to the forward. “We knew that Bacca would play as a very aggressive striker. Unfortunately, today we allowed him to do that,” he said. “The third goal, well, we earned it ourselves. We should have just kicked the ball away.”

Sevilla are now the undisputed kings of the competition, having also won it twice in its former guise as the UEFA Cup in 2006 and 2007, and have moved ahead of Juventus, Liverpool and Inter Milan to stand alone with most wins on the honours board.

Their success means there will be five Spanish teams in the Champions League next season, matching the record set by English clubs in 2005-06.

Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2015

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