 Match programme cover | |||||||
| Event | 2024–25 UEFA Europa League | ||||||
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| Date | 21 May 2025 (2025-05-21) | ||||||
| Venue | San Mamés,Bilbao | ||||||
| Man of the Match | Cristian Romero(Tottenham Hotspur)[1] | ||||||
| Referee | Felix Zwayer (Germany)[2] | ||||||
| Attendance | 49,224[3] | ||||||
| Weather | Partly cloudy night 14 °C (57 °F) 78%humidity[4] | ||||||
←2024 2026 → | |||||||
The2025 UEFA Europa League final was the final match of the2024–25 UEFA Europa League, the 54th season of Europe's secondary clubfootball tournament organized byUEFA, and the 16th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to theUEFA Europa League.
The match was played atSan Mamés inBilbao, Spain, on 21 May 2025, between English clubsTottenham Hotspur andManchester United.[5][6] It was the eleventh tournament final to feature two teams from the same association and the third all-English final.
Tottenham Hotspur won the match 1–0 for their third UEFA Cup/Europa League title, their first European trophy since1984 and a first major trophy since winning the2008 Football League Cup final.[7] In doing so, Spurs drew level with Liverpool as the competition's most successful English club and joint-second-most successful overall (along withInter Milan,Juventus andAtlético Madrid). As winners, they earned a league phase spot in the2025–26 UEFA Champions League and the right to play against the winners of the2024–25 UEFA Champions League,Paris Saint Germain, in the2025 UEFA Super Cup.
Tottenham Hotspur reached their fourth UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League final, the first time since the competition was rebranded in 2009. This was the sixth time they appeared in the final of a UEFA competition, having played in oneUEFA Champions League final (losing in2019), oneCup Winners' Cup final (winning in1963 to become the first British team to win a European trophy), and threeUEFA Cup finals (winning the inaugural competition in1972 and then in1984, and losing in1974).[8][9] Tottenham was searching for their first win in a final since winning the2008 Football League Cup final, since then they had lost three League Cup finals; in2009,2015, and2021, as well as the 2019 Champions League final.[10]
Manchester United reached their thirteenth final in UEFA competitions, having won the European Cup/Champions League on three occasions (1968—the first English team to win the title,1999, and2008) and lost twice (2009 and2011). They have also won one Cup Winners' Cup final (1991), played in two UEFA Europa League finals (winning in2017 and losing in2021), and contested fourUEFA Super Cups (winning in1991 and losing in1999,2008 and2017).
This was the third all-English final in the history of the competition, after 1972 between Tottenham andWolverhampton Wanderers and2019 betweenArsenal andChelsea, and the sixth all-English final in UEFA's three main competitions, with three all-English UEFA Champions League finals; both Manchester United (againstTottenham's rivals Chelsea in 2008) and Tottenham (againstUnited's arch-rivalsLiverpool) having appeared in one of those 'derby' finals. The other all-English major European final happened in2021, whenUnited's cross-city rivalsManchester City lost their first Champions League final to Chelsea. The2019 UEFA Super Cup also featured two English clubs, Chelsea and Liverpool, making it seven European title-deciding matches between English sides. Prior to the final, Tottenham had played nine games against fellow English sides in Europe, with the most recent being the 2019 Champions League final. They won and lost four matches each, with the only draw happened in the first leg of the 1972 UEFA Cup final. Furthermore, they had won every European two-legged tie against English sides. This was also the case for United until their most recent tie in 2016, when they were knocked out by Liverpool in theUEFA Europa League round of 16. Before the final, their European record against English sides were six wins, three draws, and two losses.
Due tocoefficient rankings, this all-English final also confirmed that there would be an unprecedented six teams from the2024–25 Premier League qualifying for the2025–26 UEFA Champions League.[11]
The sides had met 204 times previously, with United winning 95 matches and Tottenham 57. They had met in two title-deciding matches, the1967 FA Charity Shield and the aforementioned 2009 Football League Cup final, both of which ended in draws; however, United won the latter against the holders onpenalties.[12] In Europe, they were paired in 1963 the first ever tie between two English clubs in Europe in whichFA Cup holders United eliminated Tottenham, who were thetournament defending champions, in thesecond round of the Cup Winners' Cup.[13]
The two clubs met twice during the 2024–25 Premier League season, with Tottenham winning both matches, 3–0 atOld Trafford and 1–0 atTottenham Hotspur Stadium. Tottenham also beat United 4–3 in the2024–25 EFL Cup quarter-finals, the first time United lost three times against Tottenham in the same season. In the build-up to the final, media attention focused on both clubs' poor league form throughout the season; before the final match, both United and Tottenham were placed only above the team-confirmed relegation zone and mathematically certain to finish in the bottom half of the Premier League. As a result, whichever club lost the final would not play in any European competition during the 2025–26 season, with the winners' season being 'saved' by reaching the lucrative Champions League despite their poor domestic campaign.[14]
In this season, the two clubs (England's only entrants) had finished in the top eight in the competition's league phase, involving a new format with a single table of 36 teams each playing eight opponents once; consequently they progressed to the round of 16 and were seeded, with the knockout ties using the familiar two-leg system. Manchester United's victory overOlympique Lyonnais in the quarter-finals, in which they scored three times in the last few minutes of extra-time to turn a 4–2 deficit into a 5–4 win, was described in the media as one of the greatest comebacks in the history of European football.[15] In the semi-finals United defeated the 'host' club for the final,Athletic Bilbao,[16][17][18] while Tottenham eliminated the tournament's surprise package,Bodø/Glimt of Norway,[19][20] each winning both the home and away legs.
In the following table, the finals until 2009 were in the UEFA Cup era and since 2010 were in the UEFA Europa League era.
| Team | Previous final appearances (bold indicates winners) |
|---|---|
 Tottenham Hotspur | 3 (1972,1974,1984) |
| Manchester United | 2 (2017,2021) |
On 16 July 2021, the UEFA Executive Committee announced that due to the loss of hosting rights forUEFA Euro 2020,San Mamés Stadium in Bilbao was given hosting rights for the 2025 final and the2024 UEFA Women's Champions League final. This was part of a settlement agreement by UEFA to recognise the efforts and financial investment made to host UEFA Euro 2020.[5]
Note: In all results below, the score of the finalist is given first (H: home; A: away).
| Tottenham Hotspur | Round | Manchester United | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opponent | Result | League phase | Opponent | Result | ||||
 Qarabağ | 3–0 (H) | Matchday 1 |  Twente | 1–1 (H) | ||||
 Ferencváros | 2–1 (A) | Matchday 2 |  Porto | 3–3 (A) | ||||
| AZ | 1–0 (H) | Matchday 3 |  Fenerbahçe | 1–1 (A) | ||||
| Galatasaray | 2–3 (A) | Matchday 4 |  PAOK | 2–0 (H) | ||||
 Roma | 2–2 (H) | Matchday 5 |  Bodø/Glimt | 3–2 (H) | ||||
 Rangers | 1–1 (A) | Matchday 6 |  Viktoria Plzeň | 2–1 (A) | ||||
 TSG Hoffenheim | 3–2 (A) | Matchday 7 | Rangers | 2–1 (H) | ||||
 IF Elfsborg | 3–0 (H) | Matchday 8 |  FCSB | 2–0 (A) | ||||
| 4th place Advanced to round of 16 | Final position | 3rd place Advanced to round of 16 | ||||||
| Opponent | Agg. | 1st leg | 2nd leg | Knockout phase | Opponent | Agg. | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
| AZ | 3–2 | 0–1 (A) | 3–1 (H) | Round of 16 |  Real Sociedad | 5–2 | 1–1 (A) | 4–1 (H) |
| Eintracht Frankfurt | 2–1 | 1–1 (H) | 1–0 (A) | Quarter-finals |  Lyon | 7–6 | 2–2 (A) | 5–4 (a.e.t.) (H) |
| Bodø/Glimt | 5–1 | 3–1 (H) | 2–0 (A) | Semi-finals | Athletic Bilbao | 7–1 | 3–0 (A) | 4–1 (H) |
In a largely scrappy game, Tottenham went in front in the 42nd minute whenPape Matar Sarr crossed from the left whichBrennan Johnson got a touch from close range before the ball went into the left corner of the net pastAndré Onana, the final touch appearing to come off the arm ofLuke Shaw.[21] In the second halfMicky van de Ven acrobatically cleared off the line after a header fromRasmus Højlund with Tottenham goalkeeperGuglielmo Vicario also saving down low to his left from a shot by susbstituteAlejandro Garnacho and a header from Luke Shaw. After seven minutes of added time Tottenham held onto the 1–0 lead to win a first trophy in 17 years.[22]
The "home" team (for administrative purposes) was predetermined as the winner of semi-final 1 (Tottenham Hotspur).
          Tottenham Hotspur[4] |      Manchester United[4] |
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Man of the Match: Assistant referees:[2] | Match rules[23]
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Tottenham Hotspur won their first trophy since winning the2007–08 Football League Cup, and the first European trophy since prevailing in the1983–84 UEFA Cup.[25] Tottenham head coachAnge Postecoglou became the first Australian and the first manager from a non-CONMEBOL andUEFA member association country towin a European trophy. Having won the1999 OFC Club Championship withSouth Melbourne, he became the first manager to win continental club titles in Europe and outside Europe sinceMarcello Lippi, who won the1995–96 UEFA Champions League and2013 AFC Champions League. Tottenham and South Korean national team captainSon Heung-min became the first European competition-winning captain to hail from theAsia–Pacific. Postecoglou claimed the victory for his team showed he was a serial winner and could transform the North London club.[26] Despite winning Tottenham their first major trophy in 17 years, Postecoglou was sacked by the North London club on 6 June 2025 with the club citing poor domestic league form as the main reason for his dismissal.[27] With Tottenham having finished 17th in the2024–25 Premier League, one spot above relegation, their Europa League win also made them the European club competition winners with the lowest-ever league finish. The record had previously been held byInter Milan, who won the1993–94 UEFA Cup, while being placed 13th in the1993–94 Serie A.[28][29][30]
This was the second time that Manchester United ended a major European final without scoring (2–0 loss toBarcelona in the2009 UEFA Champions League final), and for only the third time in a European title-deciding match (also 1–0 loss toLazio in the1999 UEFA Super Cup). With this defeat, United failed to qualify for the European Cup/UEFA Champions League in two consecutive seasons for the first time since 1992, and for any European competition for only the second time since 1990 (also in2014–15). This was also the first time United lost four times against Tottenham in the same season. They lost five in the past six meetings between the sides, and United's latest win against Tottenham was in October 2022 as of this final. They also had failed to defeat Tottenham outside of their home atOld Trafford since the 3–0 victory in October 2021.[13] Furthermore, United had failed to defeat or eliminate fellow English side in Europe since beatingChelsea 1–0 and 2–1 (3–1 on aggregate) in the2010–11 UEFA Champions League quarter-finals. This also meant that since winning theUEFA Champions League in2008, United had now lost four of the latest five major European finals they had contested, having lost none of their first four from1968 to 2008; their only European final victory from 2009 to 2025 was the2017 UEFA Europa League final. Despite the defeat, United head coachRuben Amorim insisted his side were the better team throughout the match.[31]
