Villarreal’s Alberto Moreno: ‘I’ll go to my grave not understanding why I got all the blame’

As he prepares to take on Manchester United, the full-back recalls his last Europa League final as a Liverpool player in 2016

“I’ve already told some of my teammates: ‘I hope we win just so you can feel how heavy it is; you’re going to go nuts, you won’t believe it,’” Alberto Moreno says, and then the footballer who says he competes with Santi Cazorla to see who laughs more, whose last text to goalscoring goalkeeper Alisson Becker ran “bro, miles better than Salah, Mané and Firmino”, and who vows to hide if Villarreal lose the final and David de Gea messages him, falls about again. “I reckon it weighs more than the European Cup. The European Cup is heavy, but the Uefa Cup? Woah. A seriously big chunk of steel.”

On Wednesday Villarreal face Manchester United in Gdansk. It is their first European final; it is Moreno’s fifth in seven years. It is his third in this competition alone, and with three different clubs. “I was at Sevilla and we reached a Europa League final, went to Liverpool and we reached a Europa League final, came to Villarreal and we reached a Europa League final. The next team I join, I’m putting that in the contract,” he says, grinning as he mimes signing a deal.

Related: Villarreal ready for final frontier after long road to reuniting with United | Sid Lowe

Related: Solskjær’s new United in striking contrast to heroes of 2017 final | Jamie Jackson

Continue reading...

More...