The 2017 UEFA Europa League Final was the final match of the

2016–17 UEFA Europa League The 2016–17 UEFA Europa League was the 46th season of Europe's secondary club association football, football tournament organised by UEFA, and the eighth season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. The 2017 UEFA Eu ...

, the 46th season of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

's secondary club

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

tournament organised by

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

, and the 8th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

. It was played on 24 May 2017 at the

Friends Arena Nationalarenan, currently known as Friends Arena for sponsorship reasons, is a retractable roof multi-purpose stadium in Stockholm, Sweden. Located next to the lake Råstasjön in Solna, just north of the City Centre, it is the biggest stadium in ...

Solna Solna Municipality ( sv, Solna kommun or , ) is a municipality in Stockholm County in Sweden, located just north of Stockholm City Centre. Its seat is located in the town of Solna, which is a part of the Stockholm urban area. Solna is one of t ...

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

, Sweden, between

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

side

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * ''Ajax'' (play), by the ancient Greek ...

and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

side

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

. Manchester United won the match 2–0 to secure their first title in this competition. With this victory, they joined

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...

, Ajax,

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

and

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

as the only clubs to have won all three major European trophies ( European Champion Clubs' Cup/UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup/Europa League, and the now-defunct

Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

); while, with this defeat, Ajax became the fifth club – after

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its football section. Though the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of three ...

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fo ...

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

and

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

– to have lost a final in all these competitions. Manchester United earned the right to play against the winners of the

2016–17 UEFA Champions League The 2016–17 UEFA Champions League was the 62nd season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 25th season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League. The final was pla ...

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

, in the 2017 UEFA Super Cup. They also entered the group stage of the

2017–18 UEFA Champions League The 2017–18 UEFA Champions League was the 63rd season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 26th season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League. The final was pla ...

, as the berth reserved for the Champions League title holders was not used. Police of Stockholm took measures against potential terrorist attacks which they described as "the new normality", since two had occurred in Stockholm in

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

and just a month before the final, and also prepared for potential clashes between supporters.

Teams

''In the following table, finals until 2009 were in the UEFA Cup era, since 2010 were in the UEFA Europa League era.''

Venue

, located in the

Solna Municipality Solna Municipality ( sv, Solna kommun or , ) is a municipality in Stockholm County in Sweden, located just north of Stockholm City Centre. Its seat is located in the town of Solna, which is a part of the Stockholm urban area. Solna is one of t ...

of the

Stockholm urban area The Stockholm urban area ( sv, Stockholms tätort) is the largest and most populous of the statistical localities or urban areas in Sweden. It has no administrative function of its own, but constitutes a continuous built-up area, which extends int ...

, was announced as the final venue on 30 June 2015, following the decision of the UEFA Executive Committee meeting in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

, Czech Republic.

Background

This was Ajax's second final in the UEFA Cup/Europa League, having won in the

1992 UEFA Cup Final The 1992 UEFA Cup Final was played on 29 April 1992 and 13 May 1992 between Ajax of the Netherlands and Torino of Italy. Ajax won on away goals after a 2–2 draw in the first leg in Turin and a 0–0 draw in the second in Amsterdam. The victory m ...

over

Torino Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. T ...

on away goals. This was Manchester United's first final in the UEFA Cup/Europa League. They were seeking to join

, Ajax,

and

as the only clubs to have won all three major European trophies ( European Champion Clubs' Cup/UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup/Europa League, and the now defunct

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

). The two sides had previously met four times in European competitions, all in the UEFA Cup/Europa League, with a record of two wins each. However, Manchester United had eliminated Ajax on both occasions, 2–1 on aggregate in the

1976–77 UEFA Cup The 1976–77 UEFA Cup was the sixth season of the UEFA Cup, a club association football, football competition organised by UEFA (the Union of European Football Associations). It was won by Italian club Juventus F.C., Juventus, who beat Athletic B ...

first round, and 3–2 on aggregate in the

2011–12 UEFA Europa League The 2011–12 UEFA Europa League was the third season of the UEFA Europa League, Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 41st edition overall including its predecessor, the UEFA Cup. It began on 30 June 2011 with t ...

round of 32.

Road to the final

''Note: In the table, the score of the finalist is given first (H = home; A = away).''

Pre-match

Ambassador

The ambassador for the final was former Swedish international player

Patrik Andersson Patrik Jonas Andersson (; born 18 August 1971) is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a defender. Starting off his career with Malmö FF in the late 1980s, he went on to play professionally in England, Germany, and Spain, an ...

, who won the Champions League with

against

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

Logo

UEFA unveiled the brand identity of the final on 26 August 2016 in

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

during the group stage draw.

Ticketing

With a stadium capacity of 48,000 for the final, a total number of 37,000 tickets were available to fans and the general public, with the two finalist teams receiving 10,000 tickets each and with 17,000 tickets being available for sale to fans worldwide via UEFA.com from 17 to 28 March 2017 in four price categories: €150, €100, €70 and €45. The remaining tickets were allocated to the local organising committee, UEFA and national associations, commercial partners and broadcasters, and to serve the corporate hospitality programme.

Opening ceremony

A minute's silence was observed before the final in memory to victims of the bombing in Manchester which occurred two days before the final; the opening ceremony was thus considerably reduced.

Match

2017 UEFA Europa League Final first half

Officials

In May 2017, Slovenian

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...

Damir Skomina Damir Skomina (born 5 August 1976) is a Slovenian former UEFA Elite category football referee. Refereeing career Skomina was the fourth referee at several UEFA Euro 2008 matches. He refereed the quarter-final match of the football tournament ...

was chosen to oversee the final. He was joined by compatriots Jure Praprotnik and Robert Vukan as assistant referees,

Matej Jug Matej Jug (born 25 September 1980) is a Slovenian international referee. Career Matej Jug became a FIFA referee in 2007. He has refereed at the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers and UEFA Euro 2012 qualification.UEFA Union of European Footba ...

and Slavko Vinčić as additional assistant referees, Tomaž Klančnik as reserve assistant referee, and Italian official Gianluca Rocchi as

fourth official In association football, an assistant referee (previously known as a linesman or lineswoman) is an official empowered with assisting the referee in enforcing the Laws of the Game during a match. Although assistants are not required under the La ...

Summary

Paul Pogba Paul Labile Pogba (born 15 March 1993) is a French professional footballer who plays for club Juventus and the France national team. He operates primarily as a central midfielder, but can be deployed as a left winger, attacking midfielder, de ...

opened the scoring for Manchester United in the 18th minute when his low left foot shot from just outside the penalty area took a deflection off

Davinson Sánchez Davinson Sánchez Mina (born 12 June 1996) is a Colombian professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for club Tottenham Hotspur and the Colombia national team. Despite initially coming through América de Cali's youth academy, Sánc ...

which wrong footed the goalkeeper before looping over him and into the net.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan Henrikh Mkhitaryan ( hy, Հենրիխ Մխիթարյան, ; born 21 January 1989) is an Armenian professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or winger for club Inter Milan. Mkhitaryan won four Armenian Premier League title ...

got the second goal three minutes into the second half when with his back to goal he flicked the ball into the net with his right foot from three yards out after the ball had been knocked down to him by

Chris Smalling Christopher Lloyd Smalling (born 22 November 1989) is an English professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Serie A club Roma. Smalling represented the England national team from 2011 to 2017. During his youth, Smalling played f ...

after a corner from the right by

Juan Mata Juan Manuel Mata García (born 28 April 1988) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Turkish Süper Lig club Galatasaray. He mostly plays as a central attacking midfielder, but he can also play on the wing. A gr ...

Wayne Rooney Wayne Mark Rooney (born 24 October 1985) is an English professional football manager and former player, who is the manager of Major League Soccer club D.C. United in the United States. He spent much of his playing career as a forward while als ...

, who entered minutes before the final whistle, took the captain's armband and later led the team to lift the trophy in his final game for United; he would return to Everton less than two months later.

Details

The "home" team (for administrative purposes) was determined by an additional draw held after the semi-final draw, which was held on 21 April 2017 at UEFA headquarters in

Nyon Nyon (; outdated German language, German: or ; outdated Italian language, Italian: , ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in Nyon District in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is located some 25 kilomet ...

, Switzerland. Ajax as the "home" team played with their new home kit which would be used the following season. United wore their outgoing away (European third) kit.

Statistics

References

External links

2016–17 UEFA Europa League
UEFA.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Uefa Europa League Final 2017

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

Final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

Europa League Final International club association football competitions hosted by Sweden AFC Ajax matches Manchester United F.C. matches Europa League Final Europa League Final May 2017 sports events in Europe 2017 in association football