Tottenham beat Man Utd to win Europa League title & end 17-year wait

Tottenham beat Man Utd 1-0 to win Europa League & end 17-year wait for trophy Attribution Europa League.





Tottenham ended their 17-year wait for a trophy as Brennan Johnson's first-half goal was enough to beat Manchester United in the Europa League final.

Victory means under-fire head coach Ange Postecoglou has fulfilled a promise to deliver silverware in his second season at Spurs.

Postecoglou, who said he would "never be a clown" in his pre-match address, brought smiles and unbridled joy to the faces of the 15,000 official, and many unofficial, Tottenham fans in Bilbao's San Mames Stadium.

Victory may not save Postecoglou from a Spurs exit in the coming weeks. But the Australian will leave as a hero after joining Bill Nicholson and Keith Burkinshaw in winning a European trophy with the north London giants.

In addition to following the lead of Newcastle and Crystal Palace in making this a season of glory for clubs who rarely, if ever, win a trophy, Tottenham are also set to benefit from a £100m windfall after qualifying for next season's Champions League.

As had to happen in a battle between the two lowest-placed teams ever to contest a European final, for the losers, there was no silver lining.

Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim will send his side into the final Premier League game of the season against Aston Villa on Sunday with huge questions over his ability to make them competitive following their worst season since the 1973-74 relegation campaign.

Amorim enjoys the backing of the ownership but his decision to pick Mason Mount ahead of Alejandro Garnacho in an attacking role did not work. And with skipper Bruno Fernandes unusually subdued, United lacked the guile to drag themselves back into the game once they had fallen behind.

They came close to an equaliser with a Rasmus Hojlund header, following Guglielmo Vicario's error, that was acrobatically cleared off the line by Micky van de Ven midway through the second half.

Vicario then made a dramatic late save to keep out Luke Shaw's header.

The goal was scruffy, with some debate over whether Johnson got the last touch - and was totally in keepin



The goal was scruffy, with some debate over whether Johnson got the last touch - and was totally in keeping with the tepid domestic seasons of these two underperforming sides, but no-one at Spurs will care about that.

When Pape Matar Sarr floated over his cross as the first-half ticked to its conclusion, Johnson got ahead of Shaw to get the first touch.


Stats

  • In his 100th game as Spurs boss, Postecoglou got his second season trophy, just as he did with South Melbourne and Brisbane Roar in Australia, Yokohama F Marinos in Japan and Celtic in Scotland. The first English club to win a European competition had become the latest to do so, beating a English opponent for the second time after overcoming Wolves in the 1972 Uefa Cup final.

  • Postecoglou also won the Asian Cup two years after becoming Australia boss - and the Scottish championship in both seasons with Celtic.
  • The seven minutes of stoppage time signalled brought hope for United that they could save themselves in a European final, just as they did so famously back in 1999.




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