Sevilla won back-to-back their Europa League trophy last night, coming from behind against Ukrainian outfit Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk; the Andalusians secured a record fourth title in only nine years, and automatically qualified for the 2015- 16 Champions League.
The Spaniards were coming into the final as the favourites and the most successful team in the history of the competition, having won the title on three previous occasions. Their opponents, Dnipro, the Warriors of Light, had no much experience in European tournaments; the team from the troubled country, who are currently third in the Ukrainian Premier League, had to abandon their home ground in the Eastern Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict, and now play their matches at the Olympic Stadium in the capital Kyiv.
They came to Warsaw keen to demonstrate their resilience.
This was the first time that the two sides have clashed; the game was tight for long periods of the first half, as the Ukrainians took the initiative when the Croatian striker and former Blackburn player, Nikola Kalinic, burst into the box and headed them into the lead in the seventh minute.
The Spanish side answered with two fire goals. Firstly, the Polish international midfielder Gregorz Krychowiak scored an equaliser in the 28th minute and then, three minutes later, the competition leading goalscorer, Carlos Bacca, rounded the Dnipro goalkeeper and edged los Rojiblancos 2-1.
The Warriors of Light, who for the rest of the first half retreated into a defensive formation, then managed to claw themselves back into the match, just a minute before the interval, when the 33-year old Ukrainian central midfielder Ruslan Rotan scored to make it 2-2.
