11 days ago before the quarter-finals matches, I made a post titled: I am calling it now, Europe League final will be Inter vs Sevilla, and my prediction was right. Inter is the best team in the tournament with the best strikers and the best defense. Sevilla is also a super competitive team and has a good history in the tournament winning 5 trophies starting in 2006.
The only big doubt I had at the time was the match between Man United and Sevilla but I thought Sevilla would beat them even though Man United has better players and a higher budget. I was right. Now, I think Inter will be the champion and this will be the first defeat in a Europa League final for Sevilla. 10 years ago Inter won the Champions League and now they will probably win the Europa League.
Today’s match was similar to the recent match between Barcelona and Bayern Munich but the superiority of Inter over Shakhtar wasn’t as overwhelming, this is still a historic match because a difference of 5 goals in a Europa League semifinal is very rare. In fact, I don’t even know when was the last time this happened.
Martinez was the player in the match, and Lukaku was the second best. Both of them scored 2 goals each and both of them gave each other 1 assist. These 2 strikers should be competing in the Champions League, not the Europa League and the same goes to Inter they have improved a lot in recent years. I don't see how can Sevilla stop Lukaku & Martinez, they complement each other very well and are both in perfect shape.
Shakhtar had a few opportunities to score but just by looking at the result, anyone can know they simply didn't have a chance. Inter was better in all areas of the field.
If Inter keeps progressing and if they are able to keep Martinez one more season I think Juventus should be very worried because this team can surpass them in the Italian league.
The Europa League final will be this Friday!
Tomorrow's match is the first Champions League semifinal. PSG with Neymar and Mbappe is going to face RB Leipzig, a German team that is 11 years old and this is only their second participation in the tournament, the first one was last year. PSG is clearly the favorite one but they had troubles vs Atalanta so who know what might happen. Unlike the Europa League, predicting the winners in the Champions League has been impossible, except for Bayern vs Barca of course :P