EUROPA League
David De Gea ignored instruction on penalty notes that would have won Man United Europa League
The Europa League final went to a penalty shootout, but Red Devils goalkeeper De Gea failed to save any of Villarreal’s spotkicks to see United defeated by Unai Emery’s side
According to Mail, David De Gea ignored the crucial instruction on his penalty notes that would have won the Europa League for Manchetser United.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side struggled to break down their Villarreal opponents, with Unai Emery’s side opening the scoring 16 minutes before half-time.
Gerard Moreno drifted past the United defenders to convert Dani Parejo’s free-kick, though the Red Devils did dominate after the break.
They equalised 10 minutes into the second-half when Marcus Rashford’s shot was diverted into the path of Edinson Cavani who slotted the ball in.
Neither side could find a breakthrough for the rest of the 90 minutes, with game going into extra-time.
That again failed to find a winner, with Unai Emery’s men forcing the final into a penalty shootout.Before the shootout took place, the Spanish keeper could be seen talking to United goalkeeping coaches Richard Hartis and Craig Mawson.
The coaches also handed him a note to stick inside his towel which gave an indication of which way each Villarreal penalty taker would go.
Goalscorer Moreno stepped up first, though De Gea had no instructions for which side the striker would put the ball.He then followed the instructions exactly for the next three penalty takers, though each player scored.
When Parejo stepped up, De Gea partially followed his instructions, but dived too late to stop the midfielder’s spot kick going in.
The shootout then entered sudden death, meaning one save could have been enough to win the final had United’s taker scored their penalty.
Moi Gomez stepped up to take Villarreal’s first spotkick of sudden death, with De Gea’s instructions informing him the Spaniard would go central.
The United keeper chose to ignore them, instead diving to his left, but had he followed the notes though, he would have saved it as Gomez put his penalty straight down the middle.
Crucially, had he stayed central instead of diving, United would have won the Europa League, as Fred scored United’s first penalty of sudden death.
He again followed the notes when Villarreal captain Raul Albiol stepped up, but the defender went the opposite way to the notes.
De Gea opted to ignore his instructions when Francis Coquelin took his penalty, but it did not matter with the midfielder going high to the keeper’s left rather than centrally.
The Red Devils star almost made a crucial save when Mario Gaspar made the long walk from the halfway line, but his hand was not strong enough to keep the penalty out of the net.
Despite the 30-year-old also ignoring his notes when Pau Torres took Villarreal’s 10 th penalty of the shootout, he did go the right way, though the defender put his spotkick high into the net.
There were no instructions when Gerónimo Rulli stepped up, with the Villarreal keeper blasting his high to De Gea’s left.
That meant De Gea had to score to keep United from losing, but Rulli made a save low to his left to win Villarreal’s first ever major trophy.
Four-times Europa League winner Unai Emery booked an astonishing sixth final in the competition as a manager on Thursday when his Aston Villa team swept aside Nottingham Forest in the second leg of their all-English semi-final.
The 54-year-old Spaniard has won three times with Sevilla (2014, 2015, 2016) and once with Villarreal (2021) – either side of a defeat with Arsenal (2019) – deservedly earning him the epithet “Mr Europa League” from some fans and media.
Now he goes to the 2026 final seeking a fifth title, this time with Aston Villa against Bundesliga side Freiburg.
“His track record speaks for itself,” said Villa striker Ollie Watkins, heaping praise on his boss as the man to guarantee Europa League success. “We need to go and win it now.”
Emery was delighted with how his team overturned a 1-0 deficit to Forest in the first leg of the Europa League semi-final to score four times at home and win 4-1 on aggregate.
“Now we have to look to the final,” he said, hoping that Villa will do “something fantastic” for their fans.
Though thrilled at Thursday’s win, Emery left the pitch quickly after the final whistle, pumping his fist a few times at the crowd before letting his players enjoy the moment with fans
He and his Villa side will be favourites at the Europa League final in Istanbul on May 20, but Emery was taking nothing for granted. “Of course German teams are so difficult, their coaches, their players are so good,” he added of the upcoming opponents.
-Reuters
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List of teams which have qualified for the next round of the Europa League after the league phase concluded on Thursday, ranked by table position:
Directly to the round of 16:
1. Olympique Lyonnais (France)
2. Aston Villa (England)
3. Midtjylland (Denmark)
4. Real Betis (Spain)
5. Porto (Portugal)
6. Braga (Portugal)
7. Freiburg (Germany)
8. AS Roma (Italy)
Knockout phase play-off places (seeded)
9. Genk (Belgium)
10. Bologna (Italy)
11. VfB Stuttgart (Germany)
12. Ferencvaros (Hungary)
13. Nottingham Forest (England)
14. Viktoria Plzen (Czech Republic)
15. Red Star Belgrade (Serbia)
16. Celta Vigo (Spain)
Knockout phase play-off places (unseeded)
17. PAOK (Greece)
18. Lille (France)
19. Fenerbahce (Turkey)
20. Panathinaikos (Greece)
21. Celtic (Scotland)
22. Ludogorets (Bulgaria)
23. Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia)
24. SK Brann (Norway)
-Reuters
UEFA Europa League – Aston Villa v RB Salzburg – Villa Park, Birmingham, Britain – January 29, 2026 Aston
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Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv will not accept any away fan tickets for their Europa League match at Aston Villa next month, even if local authorities reverse the decision to ban their supporters, they said on Monday.
The ban followed safety concerns raised by British Police, who cited potential protests outside Villa Park, following demonstrations at Israel’s recent World Cup qualifiers in Oslo and Udine.
“From hard lessons learned we have taken the decision to decline any allocation offered on behalf of away fans and our decision should be understood in that context,” Maccabi said in a statement.
“We hope that circumstances will change and look forward to being able to play in Birmingham in a sporting environment in the near future.”
Aston Villa announced the decision last week, saying they were following instructions from the Safety Advisory Group (SAG), who are responsible for issuing safety certificates for games at Villa Park.
West Midlands Police described the match as high risk, past incidents, including violent confrontations and hate crime offences involving Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters ahead of a November 2024 game in Amsterdam.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar described the announcement as “shameful”.
Villa are third in the Europa League standings while Maccabi Tel Aviv are 30th after two rounds.
-Reuters
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