Never in the history of European competition has a final been played between two teams so out of form.
The winners of Wednesday’s Europa League final between Manchester United and Tottenham in Bilbao could be the lowest league finishers ever to win a major European trophy.
And they will certainly become the lowest team to ever qualify for the European Cup or Champions League.
United sit in 16th place in the Premier League, with Spurs 17th – and a combined 39 league defeats.
The only league games either have won since 2 February have been against sides who were relegated – or each other.
Their points tally could have had them relegated in some previous seasons.
“I can’t remember such a game which was so highly pressurised for both teams,” said former Celtic striker Chris Sutton on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Monday Night Club.
And yet one of them will celebrate glory – and a return to the riches of the Champions League next season.
Who has had the worse season?
BBC Sport senior football correspondent Sami Mokbel and chief football news reporter Simon Stone, who will both be at San Mames for the final, have had their say on whose season has been worse.
Mokbel on Spurs: “Underperformed, underachieved, unacceptable. Domestically, at least.
“While Tottenham will cling on to hope of somehow turning a catastrophic season into a historic one, there can be no running away from the fact that results and performances have been largely disastrous.
“Twenty-one defeats in the Premier League and counting. Of course, all that will be forgotten if Spurs lift the Europa League trophy on Wednesday night.
“Whether that is enough to keep Ange Postecoglou in a job, however, is the million-dollar question with all the indications pointing towards the Australian departing regardless of the outcome in Bilbao.
“The fact Postecoglou’s tenure in north London looks set to end imminently illustrates just how pitiful their domestic campaign has been.
“In their defence, injuries have debilitated Tottenham’s season. They have lost key players for long periods of time.
“But this is an expensively-assembled Tottenham squad – one that includes the club-record £65m signing of Dominic Solanke.
“United are in a season of transition, having changed managers midway through the season.
“It’s different for Tottenham. Following Postecoglou’s encouraging first season in charge, in which Spurs finished fifth, this was a team set up to compete for Champions League qualification.
“Instead, they could finish one place above the relegation zone. That’s undeniably poor.”
Stone on United: “Manchester United have been worse because much of the damage has been self-inflicted.
“United were the ones who reflected on Erik ten Hag’s tenure, both in the wake of their 4-0 defeat at Crystal Palace last May, then after the FA Cup final victory over Manchester City, and decided to stick with him.
“United gave him money to spend, specifically on Matthijs de Ligt and Joshua Zirkzee in the summer, then sacked him after nine games.
“And United told Ruben Amorim he had to start immediately, not wait until the summer to join from Sporting.
“Now, the safety net is Bilbao and then that United hit the ground running at the start of next season, which would justify the refusal to wait for Amorim.
“But, in the here and now, United have been woeful.
“There have been periods in games when they have looked fluid and their passing triangles have worked.
“However, Rasmus Hojlund has not looked a threat at one end of the field and basic mistakes have undermined them at the other.
“With six minutes left of extra time in their Europa League quarter-final against 10-man Lyon, it was not easy to strike a single optimistic note on United’s behalf. Somehow, they rescued themselves.
“Since then, United have got one point from five Premier League games. No-one has done worse than that.
“By any measure, this is United’s worst season since the 1973-74 relegation campaign. And they announced financial losses of £113.2m last September.
“To spend so much and be so bad really takes some doing.”
Who are the worst European winners ever?
Only two teams have won a European trophy after finishing below 12th in their domestic league.
That includes the old Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, European Cup Winners’ Cup, Uefa Cup, European Cup, Champions League, Europa League and newish Conference League.
The lowest-ranked team yet was West Ham just two seasons ago when they finished 14th in the Premier League but won the third-tier Conference League.
The highest Manchester United or Spurs can finish is 14th – with several results having to go their way.
The other lowest finishes have all come in various iterations of the Europa League.
Inter Milan finished 13th out of 18 teams in Serie A in 1993-94, only staying up by one point (in the old system of two points for a win), but won the Uefa Cup.
And a team finishing 12th have won it three times – Arsenal in the 1969-70 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, Schalke in the 1996-97 Uefa Cup and Sevilla in the 2022-23 Europa League.
That Sevilla team are the lowest-placed to have ever qualified for the European Cup or Champions League – until now.
Former Chelsea player Sutton said: “There’s not going to be a great deal of quality on show.
“Both sets of players will be apprehensive and nervous.”
On Amorim and Postecoglou making changes in recent Premier League games, he added: “I don’t understand why they are gripped by fear. Both managers want to go into the cup final with momentum.
“That really adds to the occasion and the pressure.”
Europa League finalists and their league position
| Season | Winners | League position | Runners-up | League position |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009-10 | Atletico Madrid | 9 | Fulham | 12 |
| 2010-11 | Porto | 1 | Sporting Braga | 4 |
| 2011-12 | Atletico Madrid | 5 | Athletic Bilbao | 10 |
| 2012-13 | Chelsea | 3 | Benfica | 2 |
| 2013-14 | Sevilla | 5 | Benfica | 1 |
| 2014-15 | Sevilla | 5 | Dnipro | 3 |
| 2015-16 | Sevilla | 7 | Liverpool | 8 |
| 2016-17 | Manchester United | 6 | Ajax | 1 |
| 2017-18 | Atletico Madrid | 2 | Marseille | 4 |
| 2018-19 | Chelsea | 3 | Arsenal | 5 |
| 2019-20 | Sevilla | 4 | Inter Milan | 2 |
| 2020-21 | Villarreal | 7 | Manchester United | 2 |
| 2021-22 | Eintracht Frankfurt | 3 | Rangers | 2 |
| 2022-23 | Sevilla | 12 | Roma | 6 |
| 2023-24 | Atalanta | 4 | Bayer Leverkusen | 1 |
Source: Opta
The sixth all-English European final
This will be the sixth all-English final in European competition – with all of those involving either Tottenham or Chelsea.
England is the first country to have so many in Uefa competition (excluding the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup).
Tottenham beat Wolves for the 1972 Uefa Cup final and Manchester United defeated Chelsea to win the 2008 Champions League.
In 2019, both finals were all-English – with Liverpool beating Tottenham in the Champions League and Chelsea seeing off Arsenal in the Europa League.
Chelsea beat Manchester City to win the Champions League in 2021.
Who has the best trophy record?
Both managers are looking for their first trophy in charge of an English club – but they have won silverware abroad.
Postecoglou, 59, has the bigger trophy haul, although he has been managing a lot longer than his 40-year-old opposite number.
Image caption: Excludes Super Cups, finals to decide the Australian league champions – plus those with Australia youth teams
An important game for different reasons
Both sides will be desperate to win this match, but their incentives are quite distinct.
For Tottenham, this would be a first trophy since the 2008 Carabao Cup and their first European trophy since 1984.
It would vindicate Postecoglou’s early-season declaration that he always wins a trophy in his second season.
And somehow their worst domestic season since the 1970s could turn out to be their best in years.
“I’m sure if that happens on Wednesday night Ange will be smug walking off the pitch and say ‘see you later, I’ve told you what I do mate’,” said former Republic of Ireland goalkeeper Shay Given.
Sutton reckons if Spurs lose, Postecoglou may not even be in charge for the final game of the Premier League season at home to Brighton on Sunday.
“If Postecoglou wins he’ll be hailed,” said the former Blackburn forward. “But just imagine the atmosphere against Brighton if Tottenham lose.
“I suspect he might not be in charge if that happens because that will be as toxic as anything.”
For Manchester United – who have won domestic cups in the past two seasons – Champions League qualification is the ultimate goal here.
“Financially, it’s the most important match in the club’s history,” says football finance expert Kieran Maguire.
Sutton feels the game is a potential “get-out-of-jail-free card” for Amorim.
The Portuguese, who is hoping to oversee a summer rebuild, said: “I think [qualifying for the] Champions League is more important for everything, to prepare the next season.
“We are supposed to be in the Champions League and the Europa League here is not enough, you have that feeling here. The best way to help us get to the top in a few years is the Champions League.”
The key stats
- Opta’s supercomputer says the game will be extremely close – giving Spurs a 50.3% chance of winning.
- Not only have Tottenham won all three meetings so far this season, but they have led for 90% of game time. United have yet to go ahead in any game.
- Since Ange Postecoglou took over as Spurs boss, only Brentford have dropped more points from winning positions in the Premier League.
- Three of the past four Europa League finals have gone to penalties.
- In the Premier League, Spurs’ shot conversion rate of 12.8% is the sixth highest in the division. United are second bottom with 8.4%.
- Only Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (34) and Radamel Falcao (30) have scored more goals in the Europa League than United captain Bruno Fernandes (27), while he is top for assists (19) and total goal involvements (46).
- United keeper Andre Onana has been responsible for five errors leading to goals in all competitions this season. Tottenham’s Guglielmo Vicario has only been responsible for one in his two seasons.