Top 5 moments from past UEFA Europa League finals

Manchester United and Villarreal will battle it out in the Polish city of Gdansk in the 2021 UEFA Europa League final, with a season defining continental trophy at stake.

Europa League finals have produced plenty of memorable moments over the last 11 years, since the competition was rebranded from the old UEFA Cup, and fans all over the Europe will be hoping for more of the same this time around.

Here’s a rundown of the five top moments from past finals.

5. Eden Hazard bows out

In what proved to be his last game for the club before joining Real Madrid, Eden Hazard scored twice for Chelsea in the 2019 all-English final against Arsenal.

The Belgian scored Chelsea’s third and fourth goals of a comprehensive 4-1 victory in Baku to win his sixth and final trophy in a seven-year spell with the Blues.

The triumph also marked Maurizio Sarri’s first ever trophy as a manager, with the Italian visibly chuffed with his medal when he received it. But only a few weeks later he was on the move after just one year at Stamford Bridge when he agreed to take charge of Juventus.

4. Romelu Lukaku scores at both ends

Sevilla extended their own record in 2020 when they lifted the trophy for the sixth time following a 3-2 victory over Inter. But it seemed like an opportunity missed the Serie A giants, who failed to break a 21-year and counting drought for Italian clubs in the competition.

Romelu Lukaku had been outstanding for Inter in the semi-final and was expected to be a potential matchwinner again. He was…just not as he or his team would have hoped.

The Belgian scored from the penalty spot after only five minutes and the game was tied at 2-2 at half-time thanks to a flurry of goals. But with less than 20 minutes to go, Lukaku diverted the ball into his own net and Sevilla took the win and the trophy.

3. Dnipro's sudden rise & fall

The 2015 final between Sevilla and Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk was a five-goal thriller and the highest scoring final since the competition was rebranded as the Europa League – five goals has since been matched by the 2019 and 2020 finals.

It was 2-2 at half-time and Sevilla edged in the second half when Colombian striker Carlos Bacca scored the winning goal.

What was remarkable was Dnipro’s story. They hadn’t won a major trophy in the post-Soviet era and it was their first season in European competition since 1989/90 and just their third ever. But the financial plug was pulled only a year later and they ceased to exist in 2019.

2. Benfica's curse lives on

The curse of Bela Guttmann has haunted Benfica since 1962 when the legendary Hungarian coach was denied a pay rise following back-to-back European Cup trophies and supposedly vowed the club would never be European champions again.

The Portuguese giants have gone on to lose all eight European finals they have played since then. The most recent were back-to-back Europa League finals in 2013 and 2014, when they came close to breaking that miserable curse but were beaten in tense circumstances.

In 2013, Chelsea snatched victory in the 93rd minutes thanks to a late Branislav Ivanovic goal, while the 2014 final against Sevilla finished 0-0 and was decided by a penalty shootout.

1. Radamel Falcao masterclass

Radamel Falcao scored 12 goals in the 2011/12 Europa League season for Atletico Madrid, including two in a masterful performance in an all-Spanish final against Athletic Bilbao.

The Colombian had scored 17 times when we went all the way with Porto the previous season and carried on that unplayable form with Atletico following a €40m transfer.

Marcelo Bielsa’s Bilbao had been extremely impressive en-route to the final, only for Falcao to take them apart in a matter of minutes. He scored twice in the first half in Bucharest, with Atletico teammate Diego rounding off the scoring late on.