The 2012 UEFA Europa League Final was the final match of 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 ...

, the 41st season of

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

's secondary club

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

tournament organised by

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

(after the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

), and the 3rd season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

. The match was played on 9 May 2012 at the

Arena Națională The National Arena () is a retractable roof football stadium in Bucharest, Romania. It opened in 2011 on the site of the original National Stadium, which was demolished between 2007 and 2008. The stadium hosts major football matches including h ...

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

, and was contested between two

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

sides –

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), commonly referred to as Atlético Madrid or simply Atlético, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid that plays in La Liga. The club play their home game ...

and

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club (; ), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao (), or simply Athletic, is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Southern Basque Country, Basque Country, Spain. They are known ...

. The match ended with Atlético Madrid winning 3–0, with

Radamel Falcao Radamel Falcao García Zárate (born 10 February 1986) is a Colombian professional Association football, footballer who plays as a striker (association football), striker for Categoría Primera A club Millonarios F.C., Millonarios. Nicknamed "El ...

scoring two goals and Diego scoring another. In doing so, Falcao was named man of the match, and became the first player to win back-to-back Europa League titles with different teams. The winners earned the right to play against Chelsea, the winners of the

2011–12 UEFA Champions League The 2011–12 UEFA Champions League was the 57th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 20th season in its current Champions League format. As part of a trial that started in the 2009–10 UEFA Europa Lea ...

, in the 2012 UEFA Super Cup.

Venue

The Arena Națională was announced by UEFA as the venue of the 2012 final on 30 January 2010. This was the first final of a European football club competition hosted by

. The stadium was built on the site of the former

national stadium Many countries have a national sport stadium, which typically serves as the primary or exclusive home for one or more of a country's national representative sports teams. The term is most often used in reference to an association football ...

, and opened on 6 September 2011 with a UEFA Euro 2012 Group D qualifier match between

and

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Background

This was the second consecutive Europa League final contested by two teams from the same nation, and the ninth time overall (including UEFA Cup). The only other all-Spanish final of UEFA's second club competition was the

2007 UEFA Cup Final The 2007 UEFA Cup Final was a football match that took place on 16 May 2007 at Hampden Park in Glasgow, Scotland. In an all-Spanish final, holders Sevilla FC, Sevilla defeated RCD Espanyol, Espanyol 3–1 on Penalty shoot-out (association footbal ...

, when

Sevilla Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Seville ...

defeated Espanyol. That was also the last final before the 2019 UEFA Europa League Final, where both finalist teams had played only in the UEFA Cup/Europa League in their routes to the final (rather than dropping down from the

, either after the early knockout rounds or after the group stage). Both teams have played in one previous Europa League/UEFA Cup final. Atlético Madrid won the first Europa League final after its renaming in

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

, beating

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

2–1 after extra time. Athletic Bilbao lost in

1977 Events January * January 8 – 1977 Moscow bombings, Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (no ...

Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

on away goals after the tie finished 2–2 on aggregate. The two teams have never met in European competition before. They have met each other in three

Copa del Rey The , commonly known as , or (in English) the Spanish Cup or King's Cup, and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–1936) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–1976), is an annual knockout football competition in Spanis ...

finals, with Athletic Bilbao winning two and Atlético Madrid winning one. In the

2011–12 La Liga The 2011–12 La Liga season (known as the ''Liga BBVA'' for sponsorship reasons) was the 81st season of the top level Spanish association football competition. The campaign began on 27 August 2011, and concluded on 13 May 2012. Real Madrid won a ...

season, Athletic Bilbao won their home fixture 3–0 and Atlético Madrid won their home fixture 2–1. After losing to

Udinese Udinese Calcio (; "Udinese Football") is a professional football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. The team currently competes in the Serie A, the first tier of Italian football. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sport ...

on 20 October 2011, Atlético Madrid went on a run of 11 straight victories to the final, a record in European football, winning their remaining group games to top their group and then defeating four knockout opponents both home and away.

Route to the final

Notes

Pre-match

Ticketing

The two finalist teams received 9,000 tickets each for distribution to their supporters. 20,000 tickets have been sold to local football fans with a further 3,000 tickets available for sale to fans worldwide via UEFA.com, with prices between 100

RON Ron is a shortening of the name Ronald. Ron or RON may also refer to: Arts and media * Big Ron (''EastEnders''), a TV character * Ron (''King of Fighters''), a video game character *Ron Douglas, the protagonist in '' Lucky Stiff'' played by Joe ...

and 500 RON. The remaining tickets are allocated to the local organising committee, UEFA's 53 national football associations, and commercial and broadcast partners.

Officials

In May 2012, German

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 title ...

Wolfgang Stark was appointed for the final. Joining him were fellow German officials Mike Pickel and Jan-Hendrik Salver as assistant referees, Deniz Aytekin and Florian Meyer as additional assistant referees, Mark Borsch as reserve assistant referee, and French official Stéphane Lannoy as

fourth official In association football, an assistant referee (also known as a linesman) is an official who assists the referee in administering the Laws of the Game during a match. Although assistants are not required under the Laws, at most organised levels ...

Ambassador

Former Romanian player

Miodrag Belodedici Miodrag Belodedici (; ; born 20 May 1964) is a Romanian former professional association football, footballer who played as a sweeper (association football), sweeper. Nicknamed ''The Deer'' due to his elegant Tackle (football move), tackles, he ...

was named as the ambassador for the final.

Match

Details

Statistics

References

External links

2011–12 UEFA Europa League
UEFA.com

UEFA.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Uefa Europa League Final 2012 International club association football competitions hosted by Romania

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

Final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

Football competitions in Bucharest Athletic Bilbao matches Atlético Madrid matches

May 2012 sports events in Europe 2010s in Bucharest May 2012 in Romania