Straight
Only Inter in the Champions League and against Manchester City can bring a continental title to Italian football this season, which has been struggling for a historic treble in European competitions and has already missed the first two options. Roma were left without a Europa League against Sevilla and this Wednesday Fiorentina could not succeed Jose Mourinho’s team in the winners’ list of the new Conference League as they lost to West Ham United who add their second European title after winning the Cup Winners’ Cup 1965. He was mourned by Fiorentina, who had also just lost another final, that of the Italian Cup, to Inter.
1
Terracciano, Luca Ranieri (Igor Julio, min. 84), Dodo, Nikola Milenkovic, Biraghi, Bonaventura, Sofyan Amrabat, Rolando Mandragora (Antonin Barak, min. 92), Nicolás González, Cristian Kouame (Riccardo Saponara, min. 61) and Jovic (Arthur Cabral, min. 45)
2
Areola, Naif Aguerd, Zouma (Thilo Kehrer, min. 61), Emerson, Coufal, Declan Rice, Tomas Soucek, Lucas Paquetá, Benrahma (Fornals, min. 76), Jarrod Bowen and Michail Antonio (Ogbonna, min. 93)
Goals 0-1 min 62: Benrahma. 1-1 min 67: Bonaventure. 1-2 mins 90: Jarrod Bowen.
referee Carlos del Cerro Grande
Yellow cards Benrahma (min. 30), Naif Aguerd (min. 53), Rolando Mandragora (min. 66), Duncan (min. 67), Nikola Milenkovic (min. 74), Sofyan Amrabat (min. 85), Cresswell ( min. 90) and Jarrod Bowen (min. 97)
After 43 years without a title celebration (an English Cup in 1980), with Bobby Moore claiming the only baggage of a European title a year before winning the Jules Rimet Cup at Wembley, manager David Moyes decided that the West’s plan was to keep Ham United in In the final, it should be about folding up in his court, forming two rows of four in front of the goalie and waiting for the opponent’s decision to go on the counterattack or parry episodic action from set pieces. After spending €194m on transfers this summer and being just 21 years old at the height of a career that saw him barely win an English Super Cup against Wigan after inheriting Sir Alex Ferguson’s post at Manchester United, Moyes made it floored his team to turn the game into a trifle. Fiorentina helped him, who took the ball despite his rival’s complacency and the scarcity of resources to manage it.
Everything happened between tensions and rigidities. The Italian team tried to move the rival but they did so in a panic, upset at the possibility that if they lost the ball they would provide spaces that would leave them vulnerable. He hardly tested Areola and even suffered from some fears, for example a throw-in which West Ham placed at the penalty spot and which, after the appropriate scuffle, ended in Rice’s shot at the post.
Little else happened until game time, when a first goal opened the game. Or at least changed moods and even intentions. By then, the night in Prague was as rough as the day, with incidents reported between both hobbies with around twenty detainees. Some West Ham fans decided their stamp should stay at the stadium as well. There they hydrated themselves with a kind of plastic jugs which, once emptied, became projectiles to be thrown onto the pitch. One of them hit Biraghi in the head and opened a gap, an unfortunate stoppage in a game that failed to pick up pace but in which Fiorentina managed to score in the last action before half-time. Nico González took a monumental cross and Kouamé headed the post, Jovic deflecting the rebound into the net but the former Real Madrid striker was ruled offside.
After the break, West Ham were encouraged to wait a few steps higher for their rivals. Given that Fiorentina were unable to progress, recapturing the ball a little closer to goal didn’t seem like a bad idea. It’s not as if Moyes would have jumped into the pool without a float, but something seemed to be changing as the game was no longer a tasteless monologue from the Italian side. And along the way, he landed a real-time lead on the scoreboard thanks to an accidental penalty, a handball from Biraghi that saw the VAR assist Carlos Del Cerro, who was retiring from refereeing. Benrahma scored from eleven meters and risked being sent off because he already had a warning after the goal and went to the stands.
Fiorentina needed five minutes to equalize, great news for the team given the fur of the rival in front of them. West Ham didn’t have time to pound any more balls before Nico González won an aerial ball and veteran Bonaventura put a shot into the net. Everything was shaken, but the irons made sure everything was put back in place. He covered himself up again, hoping that the fatigue of some and others would reveal a loophole through which they could move closer to victory. Lucas Paquetá was about to hit the ninety-minute mark. Stepping on a ball that was loose in midfield, he polished his left foot to place it behind the Viola defense, leaving Bowen in front of the keeper. The goal rewarded a cruel plan, but the details on those occasions no one can remember. David Moyes, who was close to losing his job several times this season, partied like there was no tomorrow. And if it’s about winning, then maybe not.
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