Mendilibar and his first European final

José Luis Mendilibar has become one of the stylish technicians in Spanish football and is still attracting attention in the Continental when he arrived at Sevilla two months ago and removed him from serious danger of relegation and also put him in the final of the Europa League . a victory that he will live in Budapest against Roma after in his extensive curriculum as a coach he has accumulated only six international matches so far, and two of them eighteen years ago at the Athletic Club.

The 62-year-old coach from Biscay was chosen as emergency coach after Julen Lopetegui was dismissed at the start of his fourth season due to a poor start and his replacement, Argentine Jorge Sampaoli, is unknown how to course correct.

Mendilibar, as soon as he arrived at the end of March, found himself in a team that had to pull out of the standings but, despite its poor dynamics, together with Sampaoli they beat the Dutch PSV Eindhoven and the Turkish Fernerbahçe before meeting in the quarterfinals Europa League Final with Manchester United.

After a good start in the domestic tournament on April 1 in Cádiz (0-2), it was found that on the 13th of that month he had a match scheduled at the Old Trafford stadium against one of the ocean liners of the continent, both for its sporting accolades and for its economic power.

Mendilibar comes to the meeting with European experience spanning two matches, having made his debut in July 2005 with Athletic Club in the extinct Intertoto Cup, almost eighteen years on now, when his first spell at Eibar ended, he made the his debut in the 2005–06 campaign as a coach in the First Division with the Bilbao team.

In that course, the club from the Biscayan capital is the third representative of the Spanish League in Intertoto, along with Valencia and Deportivo, after the invitation from UEFA at the request of the Basque entity.

The coach, since this tournament took place on summer dates, had to reconsider the entire preseason to adapt to Intertoto, where he entered the second round and won the Romanian CFR Cluj in the draw.

The premiere was not the desired one, as the first leg was played in the city of Cluj-Napoca on July 2, 2005 and they lost 1-0, a result they were unable to overcome when returning to San Mamés a week later, when Athletic equalized the tie (1-0) but could not prevent it from being resolved in a penalty shootout won by the Romanian team.

That was Mendilibar’s short-lived passage to what was then the third European competition, but in this campaign, in which he was out of work after training earlier against Alavés, he continued the continental path in a game in which Sevilla came out who live from Manchester and managed to tie (2-2) in their last period after the English were more superior.

The return to Sánchez-Pizjuán was another story and the Nervión team overcame United with a 3-0 victory that put them in the semifinals, where another historic and powerful European team awaits them , Juventus from Turin.

The first leg of the visitors is again, this time in the Italian city, where Sevilla played a great game against the one coached by Massimiliano Allegri and reached the extension of the game with a 0-1 draw, but the Piedmontese squad managed to tie the last game.

The following week they had to overcome another draw at Seville and this time a very complicated game with Juventus leading, Sevilla equalizing to force extra time and Argentine Erik Lamela slightly off balance.

Now, with the Andalusian team in the upper-middle zone of the table in the domestic tournament, Mendilibar will face his seventh international match, where Sevilla can add his seventh title in this competition and the Basque coach his first.