 Match programme cover | |||||||
| Event | 2011–12 UEFA Europa League | ||||||
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| Date | 9 May 2012 | ||||||
| Venue | Arena Națională,Bucharest | ||||||
| Man of the Match | Radamel Falcao(Atlético Madrid)[1] | ||||||
| Referee | Wolfgang Stark (Germany)[2] | ||||||
| Attendance | 52,347[3] | ||||||
| Weather | Cloudy night 11 °C (52 °F) 83%humidity[4] | ||||||
←2011 2013 → | |||||||
The2012 UEFA Europa League Final was the final match of the2011–12 UEFA Europa League, the 41st season ofEurope's secondary clubfootball tournament organised byUEFA (after theUEFA Champions League), and the 3rd season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to theUEFA Europa League. The match was played on 9 May 2012 at theArena Națională inBucharest,Romania,[5][6] and was contested between twoSpanish sides –Atlético Madrid andAthletic Bilbao. The match ended with Atlético Madrid winning 3–0, withRadamel Falcao scoring two goals andDiego scoring another.[7][8] In doing so, Falcao was named man of the match, and became the first player to win back-to-back Europa League titles with different teams.
The winners earned the right to play againstChelsea, the winners of the2011–12 UEFA Champions League, in the2012 UEFA Super Cup.
The Arena Națională was announced by UEFA as the venue of the 2012 final on 30 January 2010.[9] This was the first final of a European football club competition hosted byRomania.
The stadium was built on the site of the formernational stadium, and opened on 6 September 2011 with a UEFA Euro 2012 Group D qualifier match betweenRomania andFrance.
This was the second consecutive Europa League final contested by two teams from the same nation, and the ninth time overall (including UEFA Cup).[10] The only other all-Spanish final of UEFA's second club competition was the2007 UEFA Cup Final, whenSevilla defeatedEspanyol. That was also the last final before the2019 UEFA Europa League Final, where both finalist teams had played only in the UEFA Cup/Europa League in their routes to the final (rather than dropping down from theUEFA Champions League, either after the early knockout rounds or after the group stage).
Both teams have played in one previous Europa League/UEFA Cup final. Atlético Madrid won the first Europa League final after its renaming in2010, beatingFulham 2–1 after extra time. Athletic Bilbao lost in1977 toJuventus on away goals after the tie finished 2–2 on aggregate. The two teams have never met in European competition before. They have met each other in threeCopa del Rey finals, with Athletic Bilbao winning two and Atlético Madrid winning one. In the2011–12 La Liga season, Athletic Bilbao won their home fixture 3–0 and Atlético Madrid won their home fixture 2–1.[11]
After losing toUdinese on 20 October 2011, Atlético Madrid went on a run of 11 straight victories to the final, a record in European football, winning their remaining group games to top their group and then defeating four knockout opponents both home and away.
Notes
The two finalist teams received 9,000 tickets each for distribution to their supporters. 20,000 tickets have been sold to local football fans with a further 3,000 tickets available for sale to fans worldwide via UEFA.com, with prices between 100RON and 500 RON. The remaining tickets are allocated to the local organising committee, UEFA's 53 national football associations, and commercial and broadcast partners.[13]
In May 2012, GermanrefereeWolfgang Stark was appointed for the final. Joining him were fellow German officials Mike Pickel and Jan-Hendrik Salver asassistant referees,Deniz Aytekin andFlorian Meyer asadditional assistant referees, Mark Borsch asreserve assistant referee, and French officialStéphane Lannoy asfourth official.[2]
Former Romanian playerMiodrag Belodedici was named as the ambassador for the final.[14]
          Atlético Madrid[4] |     Athletic Bilbao[4] |
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Man of the Match: Assistant referees:[2] | Match rules[15]
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