Manchester United seek their second UEFA Cup on Wednesday in Bilbao, with would-be three-time champion Tottenham Hotspur standing in their way of the 2024-25 Europa League crown.
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It’s a big-name, all-Premier League battle for what’s become Europe’s second-biggest club prize in a tournament that has evolved over the years to become more powerful and increasingly-similar to the UEFA Champions League.
Here’s a abridged history of the UEFA Cup/Europa League, as well as a list of all finals.
What is the Europa League and why was it started?
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The Europa League, formerly the UEFA Cup, is the second most-prestigious competition in European football after the UEFA Champions League.
The Champions League was formerly the European Cup and was limited in berths, which opened up room for a second tournament that featured the best teams to not have won their domestic league. Instead there were two: The UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup and the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup.
The UEFA Cup replaced the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup as the third tournament in 1971, then slid up to second when it essentially merged with the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1999.
Who have won the most UEFA Cups?
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Sevilla have been to the most UEFA Cup/Europa League Finals with seven, and they’ve won all of them. Perhaps even more remarkably, Sevilla’s first UEFA Cup was in 2006, making them the force of the tournament this century and all-time.
Inter Milan, Liverpool, Juventus, and Atletico Madrid have each won three UEFA Cups.
List of UEFA Europa League / UEFA Cup finals
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_Played over two-legs_
1972: Tottenham Hotspur over Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-21973: Liverpool over Borussia Monchengladbach 3-21974: Feyenoord over Tottenham Hotspur 4-21975: Borussia Monchengladbach over Twente 5-11976: Liverpool over Club Brugge 4-31977: Juventus over Athletic Bilbao 2-2 (pens)1978: PSV Endhoven over Bastia 3-01979: Borussia Monchengladbach over Red Star Belgrade 2-11980: Eintracht Frankfurt over Borussia Monchengladbach 3-3 (pens)1981: Ipswich Town over AZ Alkmaar 5-41982: Goteborg over Hamburger SV 4-01983: Anderlecht over Benfica 2-11984: Tottenham Hotspur over Anderlecht 2-2 (pens)1985: Real Madrid over Videoton 3-11986: Real Madrid over Koln 5-31987: Goteborg over Dundee United 2-11988: Bayer Leverkusen over Espanyol 3-3 (pens)1989: Napoli over Stuttgart 5-41990: Juventus over Fiorentina 3-11991: Inter Milan over Roma 2-11992: Ajax over Torino 2-2 (pens)1993: Juventus over Borussia Dortmund 6-11994: Inter Milan over Austria Salzburg 2-01995: Parma over Juventus 2-11996: Bayern Munich over Bordeaux 5-1
1997: Schalke over Inter Milan 1-1 (pens)
_Single match at host site_
1998: Inter Milan 3-0 Lazio in Paris1999; Parma 3-0 Marseille in Moscow2000: Galatasaray 0-0 (pens) Arsenal in Copenhagen2001: Liverpool 5-4 Alaves in Dortmund2002: Feyenoord 3-2 Borussia Dortmund in Rotterdam2003: Porto 3-2 Celtic in Seville2004: Valencia 2-0 Marseille in Gothenburg2005: CSKA Moscow 3-1 Sporting Lisbon in Lisbon2006: Sevilla 4-0 Middlebsrough in Eindhoven2007: Sevilla 2-2 (pens) Espanyol in Glasgow2008: Zenit Saint Petersburg 2-0 Rangers in Manchester2009: Shakhtar Donetsk 2-1 aet Werder Bremen in Istanbul2010: Atletico Madrid 2-1 aet Fulham in Hamburg2011: Porto 1-0 Braga in Dublin2012: Atletico Madrid 3-0 Athletic Bilbao in Bucharest2013: Chelsea 2-1 Benfica in Amsterdam2014: Sevilla 0-0 (pens) Benfica in Turin2015: Sevilla 3-2 Dnipro in Warsaw2016: Sevilla 3-1 Liverpool in Basel2017: Manchester United 2-0 Ajax in Solna2018: Atletico Madrid 3-0 Marseille in Lyon2019: Chelsea 4-1 Arsenal in Baku2020: Sevilla 3-2 Inter Milan in Cologne2021: Villarreal 1-1 (pens) Manchester United in Gdansk2022: Eintracht Frankfurt 1-1 (pens) Rangers in Seville2023: Sevilla 1-1 Roma (pens) in Budapest2024: Atalanta 3-0 Bayer Leverkusen in Dublin
2025: Manchester United vs Tottenham Hotspur in Bilbao