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16th Mar 2017

Michael Owen’s memory of last season’s Europa League is worse than we imagined

Close, but no cigar

JOE

We’re starting to think Michael Owen might have fallen asleep at half-time during last season’s Europa League final.

How else can you explain this slip from the former Liverpool and Manchester United striker?

Owen was a studio pundit for coverage of the last 16 of the Europa League, giving him an opportunity to share his wisdom about the competition.

“It’s a difficult competition to win,” Owen says. So far, so good.

“You look at Liverpool winning it last year, they played some unbelievably hard teams.”

Wait, what?

https://twitter.com/manutdvines/status/842490586875793409

In Owen’s defence, Liverpool were winning the Europa League when the half-time whistle sounded during last year’s final.

The only problem is that football matches last 90 minutes, and the second 45 – during which time Sevilla scored three unanswered goals – seems to have passed him by.

Still, it’s not like there were any clues he might have been able to call upon, like Sevilla qualifying for the Champions League by virtue of winning the competition and Liverpool…well, not playing in Europe this season.

That’s right, it’s not as if Sevilla played in a high-profile Champions League game this week that might have jogged his memory.

Oh, right.

Well, at least he was close. Close and wrong. And more wrong than close.

Sorry Michael, we tried to give you the benefit of the doubt, we really did.