And from there the Manchester United forward barely moved, other than to cover his face with a hand. It felt like an age before one of Ruben Amorim’s coaching staff sidled over somewhat sheepishly and attempted to pull Garnacho to his feet but he was not for shifting.
The television camera crew spotted an opportunity and for the next few minutes they hovered around Garnacho like killer whales stalking a young seal.
They were just doing their jobs but those prying lenses felt cruel all the same.
Tottenham’s Pedro Porro and then his Argentine team-mate Cristian Romero came over to console the crestfallen figure on the floor as U2’s Beautiful Day reverberated rather unhelpfully around the stadium.
It was a good 10 minutes before Garnacho composed himself enough to stray over to the half where those in red were scattered, the spaces between them as large as those opponents have exploited time and again during this most pitiful of campaigns.
We will never know how this final might have panned out had Amorim opted to start with Garnacho in his attack but it is unlikely to have been much worse.
There have been many strange calls at United this season, decisions that at times have stretched the bounds of logic and reason, and so at least there was continuity to that theme here in Bilbao.
Amorim was right to argue that it is much easier to judge in hindsight but there can be little debate that the decision to drop Garnacho and start Mason Mount backfired.
With Rasmus Hojlund again largely lost upfront and Mount virtually anonymous before being replaced by Garnacho in the 71st minute, United’s entire attacking output seemed to be reduced to the hope that Amad Diallo might conjure a bit of magic.
“It’s easy to say that now,” Amorim said of his selection. “Who missed the big opportunity in the first half in the semi final [against Athletic Bilbao]? Garnacho. Football is like that.”
That felt rather like kicking a man when he was down but then Amorim has not pulled any punches since the moment he replaced Erik ten Hag as United’s head coach in early November.
Quite how Garnacho reacts remains to be seen. We were given some insight into his view of Amorim’s decision to drop him for a player who, until the start of this month, had not started a game in 2025 via his Instagram stories in the hours before kick-off.
There certainly felt something rather pointed about Garnacho posting an image of himself scoring in the FA Cup final triumph over Manchester City 12 months ago.
After the game he hinted at those frustrations at being benched and said he would wait to see what the summer brought regarding his future.
“Obviously it’s hard for everyone. Our season was s---,” the United winger told journalists, as reported by AlbicelesteTalk.
“We didn’t beat anyone in the league. We lacked a lot of things. When you don’t score goals, you always need more. Until we reached the final, I played every round.
“And I played 20 minutes today… I don’t know. I’m going to try to enjoy the summer and see what happens next.”
Garnacho’s brother and agent, Roberto, was even more forthright, accusing Amorim of throwing the player “under the bus”, comments that may only inflame an already delicate situation.
“Working as no one else, helping every round, coming from two goals in the last two finals, just to be on the pitch for 19 mins and get thrown under the bus. Wowe hahahahahaha,” Roberto Garnacho wrote on Instagram.
Garnacho’s end product has let him down this season and he does not look a particularly comfortable fit for one of the two No 10 positions in this 3-4-2-1 system to which United seem to have wedded themselves, for better or worse.
But United’s attacking play − hardly a fast and fluid construct even with one of their most penetrative and direct players in the team − was a byword for the leaden and the pedestrian against Tottenham, who did not need to be any good themselves to claim a first European trophy for 41 years.
Chelsea and Napoli both failed with bids for Garnacho in January but it felt pretty clear to everyone that, if those offers had reached the right level, United would have cashed in. Will the same be true this summer?
The circumstances of this final felt like Garnacho being pushed further towards the exit door but if they are to sell the Argentinian − particularly in a summer when they are already looking to shift three other wide forwards in Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Antony − they really will be staking all their chips on the Amorim experiment. And an experiment is what it feels like, no matter how much United fans sing their manager’s name.
Amorim had warned his paymasters before he accepted the job that, if he was to join in mid-season rather than at the end of the campaign as he originally wished, things could get a little ugly.
No one in their right mind could have imagined they would turn quite this bad, though. This was Tottenham’s fourth victory from four against United this season and they could yet rub salt into those wounds on Sunday.
Better United’s result and Spurs will leapfrog their rivals and relegate Amorim’s side to 17th position.
In other words, United would be the worst team in the top flight that has not been relegated. Drink that in for a moment.
Amorim, in truth, has always been honest enough to admit that winning the Europa League was not going to mask the scale of United’s problems but those troubles feel like they are morphing by the month.
It will not feel like it now given the soreness in defeat − and the soul-searching that will inevitably follow − but the prospect of no European football at Old Trafford next season might not feel quite so damaging come August.
After all, this mob need all the time they can get on the training pitch to try to fix this mess. Whether Garnacho is part of the rebuild, though, remains to be seen.