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Despite being narrative-laden — Pep Guardiola claiming the treble, the LaLiga side solidifying themselves as Europa League Kings and the Hammers ending a 43-year trophy wait — the 2022-23 continental deciders will not live long in the memory.
“Finals are not for playing; they are for winning,” Jose Mourinho remarked after Chelsea defeated Tottenham Hotspur in the 2015 League Cup final. Despite the pre-match narratives, those words rang true for the 2022-23 European finals.
Manchester City chased a treble against Inter Milan in the Champions League, Sevilla sought to continue their Europa League record against Mourinho’s unbeaten European finals streak, and West Ham United yearned to end their 43-year wait for a trophy – against Fiorentina, who had not won a title in 22 years.
All three sides secured those respective feats, but the games were unexciting.
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Mourinho’s streak ended by Sevilla
Aside from strangely taking place before the Europa Conference League decider, Roma against Sevilla was a dull affair.
Not for Mourinho, whose gameplan was going smoothly until a Gianluca Mancini own goal put the Andalusians level on the night.
It was the first time any side led by the Portuguese had conceded in a European final since Henrik Larsson netted twice for Celtic against Porto in 2003’s UEFA Cup decider.
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21:05 - 30.05.2023
ANALYSIS Has Mourinho's Roma spell been a success?
The Giallorossi boss could win consecutive European finals with the Rome outfit, so why is the Portuguese manager’s future uncertain?
Mourinho had won four more finals — Porto 3-0 Monaco, Inter 2-0 Bayern Munich, Manchester United 2-0 Ajax and Roma 1-0 Feyenoord — without a goal conceded, putting the experienced manager in unfamiliar territory.
The rest of the game was insipid, and it was made worse by having to sit through an extra half-hour. The flow of events after 90 minutes gave ammunition to critics — including this writer — who want those 30 minutes discarded from the sport.
Sevilla claimed a record-extending seventh title in Europe’s secondary club competition to continue their dominance of the competition, and Jose Luis Mendilibar’s simplified approach was good enough to turn the Andalusians’ season around — the Seville outfit were two points clear of the bottom three in LaLiga before the 62-year-old’s arrival.
Mendilibar’s brief was league survival, but he guided the club to another continental triumph in the first European games of his career since Intertoto Cup elimination as Athletic Club’s boss in 2005 while ending nine points clear of 18th place.
Even though that is a good story, the less said about the game, the better.
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12:38 - 01.06.2023
THROWBACK Sevilla’s exceptional Europa League history
The Andalusians defeated Jose Mourinho’s Roma to claim a seventh Europa League title in 17 years. In this edition of ‘Throwback’, we hark back to the Spanish side’s preceding six triumphs.
West Ham’s final-minute sucker punch against Fiorentina
This game brought together two sides without success in decades: West Ham for four and Fiorentina for two.
A late Jarrod Bowen finish put paid to Vincenzo Italiano’s ambition to bring success back to Florence after a 22-year wait, but the game was frustrating for the neutral and embarrassing for the sport as Fiorentina captain Cristiano Biraghi was left bleeding from the head by objects thrown by West Ham fans.
The Viola smoothly progressed the ball into midfield and the attacking third, albeit aided by the London side’s passive approach without possession but lacked the ingenuity to break down David Moyes’s team despite dominating possession.
West Ham may have won, but their negative approach could have backfired. It was also surprising how little the Premier League side tried to take advantage of Fiorentina’s high defensive line until Lucas Paqueta slipped Bowen through at the death to land a second cup final defeat on Italiano’s men.
Admittedly, this was not as poor a game as the Europa League. Yet it was far from memorable as a spectacle.
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22:46 - 07.06.2023
Fiorentina vs West Ham: Hammers break 43 year jinx, win ECL final in style
West Ham are the new winners of the 2023 Europa Conference League, their first trophy in 43 years.
Guardiola and City reign supreme in Europe to emulate United’s 1999 treble winners
Recency bias could prompt disparagement of Saturday’s decider, with some tagging it the worst Champions League final they can remember in recent memory.
That would be false – the 2019 decider between Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur was mediocre.
This year’s final was not as awful as the all-English encounter in Madrid, but it could have been better.
However, perhaps this was for the best. A better final for some might have witnessed an inspiring Manchester City showing, possibly resulting in Inter’s demolition. An overwhelming defeat for the Nerazzurri and a straightforward win for the Cityzens was an outcome nobody wanted – except for the Cityzens.
Perhaps jangling Man City nerves were needed to have a level playing field. Indeed, Simone Inzaghi’s team forced City mistakes, but those slip-ups in possession were uncharacteristic.
However, Inter’s execution in the opening half was below par. When the Serie A side got into promising situations after the break, their decision-making and finishing let them down.
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23:32 - 10.06.2023
Man City vs Inter Milan: 3 Mistakes Simone Inzaghi made in UCL final defeat to Pep Guardiola
A painful defeat for Simone Inzaghi and his team in the Champions League final against Manchester City and we analyse three mistakes made by Inter Milan’s Manager.
Guardiola’s side lost the non-penalty Expected Goals (xG) by a significant margin for only the second time en route to their Champions League triumph — the first came in the reverse fixture with Bayern Munich in the Quarter-finals second leg when they were 3-0 up from the reverse fixture — further underscoring the Manchester club’s underwhelming performance in Istanbul.
It was not swashbuckling City; neither were Inter decisive enough to punish the pre-game favourites — adding to the Italian club’s hurt at the final whistle — thus resulting in an unexceptional final.
The last four Champions League deciders have ended 1-0, and the losing side has failed to score in the recent five finals. Whether this is a worrying trend remains to be seen, but there is an evident pattern of low-scoring deciders.
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An arduous club season broken by an unprecedented winter World Cup is finally over. There were several memorable moments and games, but all three European deciders were slightly anticlimactic.
Perhaps finals are not for playing, but indeed for winning after all.
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