Seville (EFE) Basque coach José Luis Mendilíbar became an icon and guide of the half of the city that last night did not sleep or slept little.
The Dutch referee Danny Makkelie whistled the end of the game and, in addition to the more than forty thousand Sevilla supporters inflamed by Sánchez Pizjuán, the half of Seville that was following the match on television erupted with shouts, chants, rockets and cars that were making their way through the city. sound their horns before the silence and resignation of the other half.
‘Any Mendilover here?’, Sevilla asked on their social networks after the victory in extra time against Juventus (2-1) and access to the final of the Europa League, on May 31 against Roma in Budapest, the seventh after winning the previous six in Eindhoven, Glasgow, Turin, Warsaw, Basel and Cologne.
‘Oseluí’, as he is also called in the thousands of messages that already circulate on social networks, has imposed a style since he was hired at the end of last March after the dismissal of Argentine Jorge Sampaoli and, from modesty, normality and common sense has straightened the course of a ship that, at that time, was adrift in serious risk of descent.
Since then, Mendilíbar, who boasts phrases as normal as managing a match “without driving the players crazy”, has achieved 19 points out of 24 possible with six wins, one draw and one loss that have placed his team in tenth place position in LaLiga, in addition to qualifying it for the Europa League final after eliminating Manchester United and Juventus.
The coach from Zaldívar (Vizcaya), whose European background was reduced to a tie for the Intertoto Cup in 2005, has earned the respect of his players and the fans of the Nervión club and, at 62 years old and with more than 400 matches in the First Division, as he himself recalled in his presentation, he has dispelled some doubts on his arrival and has become an idol for fans who slept little last night.
He himself, before having the ‘Mendilovers’ club, nailed it when, when asked about his continuity next season, he replied that “from the beginning”, he signed for three months and that he was delighted to do so.
“Some of you put your hands on your head thinking this ‘stupid’ comes here for three months. He is dead and no, they were quite alive. What matters to me is finishing well. If we do things well and Sevilla don’t want to, I’m sure they’ll call from another side and if not, we’ve already been unemployed on other occasions”, declared the coach from Biscay.
José Luis Mendilíbar faces from today, with hardly any time other than to rest, another of the highlights of the city, the match of maximum rivalry with Betis that will be played next Sunday at the Sánchez Pizjuán, in which the ‘Mendilovers’ They will pay him homage and homage.
The entry The ‘Mendilovers’, the Seville media that did not sleep was first published in EFE Noticias.