Villarreal coach Unai Emery says he played on Manchester United’s overconfidence for last night’s Europa League final.

Villarreal shocked United to win the final in a marathon penalty shootout.

Emery went into the game revealing he’d studied 17 of United’s games. He told AS: “This final was the first time that I told the squad that they were favourites. It is a reality, it is not to play with pressure. But in football you can find answers to combat all the extra arguments that they have and, thus, subtract that favouritism that they have and find options to win.

“I knew that they felt like they were winners, and that little lack of respect in the subconscious was used by us. They weren’t going to let us think much, and at one point we lost control of what we wanted, to have the ball. Pushing them up also cost us. So we had to raise the game so that a few things happened, and in those few, we find our moment.

“We scored a free-kick, they didn’t have clear chances. We planned a long game, in which we knew that mentally they would end up frustrated. With 1-1 we continued the same, and when they went down physically for not having found the second, in extra time, we found our game. Without having clear chances.”