Rodrygo Goes is a specialist in taking his chances. He appeared as the lone striker against Sevilla, in the absence of Vinicius and Benzema, and he scored the winner for Real Madrid at the Estadio Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan.

In addition, he turned a match with nothing at stake into gold with an outstanding goal, initiating and finishing a classic counter-attack with three spectacular touches: a break to one side, a break to the other, inside the box and firing the ball into the net.

Almost by himself, he beat a combative Sevilla, with the Europa League final in their mind. He got ahead, pressed for an hour and was able to give even more in the final stretch. The logical thing to do.

Madrid paid for another low intensity start, neglecting the second ball in the build-up to go down 1-0 to a Rafa Mir rebound from Bryan Gil's blocked shot. After dying in the Champions League with the 4-3-3 formation, Ancelotti deployed five midfielders and a false no.9, Rodrygo, who wasted a good early chance after being played in by Lucas Vazquez.

He made up for it, however, with a free-kick that went in down the side that goalkeepers should always cover. Yet Bono, as many keepers do, took a step too soon to his right which resulted in him being wrong-footed as the ball went easily past him.

The equalizer sparked Sevilla into life and they had chances before the break, from Lamela and Rafa Mir, and later, with Acuna's run that Rafa Mir failed to finish off. The home side's aggressive pressure on the opposition defense was remarkable. Mendilibar made the logical changes with Budapest in mind. Out went Rakitic and Bryan Gil. The duel was evenly balanced, with Camavinga at full-back and Alvaro Rodriguez up front, when Rodrygo stole the show.

From a Sevilla free-kick he picked up the rebound, delayed Modric, combined with Kroos who looked for the Brazilian deep, on the run. Rodrygo cut inside, with Alvaro at his side, took it past Montiel and put the ball past the post.

The final stretch spoiled the duel. Especially after Acuna's hard ackle on Ceballos, which ended the Argentine's season. After an absurd sending off against Juventus, the full-back left in disgust, as did the bench and the rest of the stadium.

Ceballos got up and continued playing, which was interpreted as an exaggeration to provoke the sending off, and the Sevillian, who has a past with Real Betis, received whistles and jeers.

As the match ended, it was clear that Sevilla set their minds and hearts on Budapest, on their way to the a possible seventh triumph in the Europa League.