If you google “Europa League Final” right now, there are fireworks.
Fitting.
In one of the greatest European NIT Championships of all time, Villarreal claimed that continent’s most difficult-to-obtain crown, bringing its country glory unseen since Three Dog Night compared it to Oklahoma and its city glory unseen since the orange boom of the middle ages.
Ninety minutes of footie.
Another thirty minutes of footie.
Something like thirteen other minutes of footie in there because of stoppage time.
Eleven rounds of penalty kicks.
And if there were ever a way to lose a soccer match in NIT fashion, it would be to allow all eleven opponent penalty kicks to be scored and then miss one’s own, which is exactly what Manchester United keeper David de Gea did, making him the NIT Footballer of the Year (NITFOTY, pronounced like the word nifty but not exaclty like the word nifty) for Europe.
Just really proud of that continent right now. They needed this.
