Luuk de Jong scored an all-important brace of headers for Sevilla in the Europa League final and then put his team’s comeback victory over Inter Milan down to the togetherness of the squad.
Although the Andalucian side have now won the Europa League six times in total, and five times in the last seven seasons, few of the current squad were actually involved last time it was won.
A heavy squad turnover last summer left a lot of new faces thrust together for the first time, but Dutch striker De Jong says they have become “like a family” in pursuit of success.
It was he who first equalised, then put his team ahead, after Romelu Lukaku’s early penalty for Inter. Diego Godin then made it 2-2, before Lukaku deflected in Diego Carlos’ overhead kick to give Sevilla the 3-2 win.
“It’s incredible, we had such tough games all tournament but played so well,” he told BT Sport at full-time.
“You could see during the tournament we were like a family, really together. You could see it in the last game too.
“Out of nothing they scored but I could score two headers too; it’s an amazing feeling for me and luckily we could win the game.”
De Jong has not always been a guaranteed starter this season, playing just 39 minutes across the round of 16, quarters and semis of this competition—but says he was always ready to come into the team when manager Julen Lopetegui called upon him. Prior to the final he had only scored once in the Europa League at all this season, but De Jong saved his best for last to hit double figures for 2019/20 in all competitions.
“I’m always ready when [the manager] needs me and it worked really well.
“It’s my speciality (scoring headers)! The first ball was perfect and I anticipated it at the near post. For the second, [Ever] Banega’s cross is great and headers are really special when they go in the [far] post.”
