The 2017 UEFA Europa League final was the final match of the 2016–17 UEFA Europa League, the 46th 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 ...

, and the 8th 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 ...

. It was played on 24 May 2017 at the Friends Arena in

Solna Solna ( or , ), also known as Solna Municipality, is a municipality in central Stockholm County, Sweden, located just north of Stockholm City Centre. Its seat is located in the town of Solna, which is a part of the Stockholm urban area. Solna i ...

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

, Sweden, between Dutch side

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * Ajax (play), ''Ajax'' (play), by the an ...

and English side

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

. Manchester United won the match 2–0 to secure their first title in this competition. With this victory, they joined

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 ...

, fellow finalists Ajax, Bayern Munich and Chelsea as the only clubs to won all three major European trophies at the time ( European Champion Clubs' Cup/UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup/Europa League, and the now-defunct

Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The competition's official name was originally the European Cup Winners' Cup; it was renamed the UEFA Cup Winne ...

); while, with this defeat, Ajax became the fifth club – after

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), or HSV (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its Association football, football department. Though the current HSV was founde ...

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Florence, Tuscany. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while ...

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

and

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

– to have lost a final in all these competitions. Manchester United earned the right to play against the winners of the 2016–17 UEFA Champions League,

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

, in the 2017 UEFA Super Cup. They also entered the group stage of the

2017–18 UEFA Champions League The 2017–18 UEFA Champions League was the 63rd season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 26th season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League. The final was pl ...

, as the berth reserved for the Champions League title holders was not used. Police of Stockholm took measures against potential terrorist attacks which they described as "the new normality", since two had occurred in Stockholm 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 ...

and just a month before the final, and also prepared for potential clashes between supporters. It was United's last trophy for nearly six years until they defeated

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Since th ...

2–0 to win the 2023 EFL Cup final.

Venue

Friends Arena, located in

Solna Municipality Solna ( or , ), also known as Solna Municipality, is a municipalities of Sweden, municipality in central Stockholm County, Sweden, located just north of Stockholm City Centre. Its seat is located in the town of Solna, which is a part of the Stockh ...

of the

Stockholm urban area The Stockholm urban area () is the largest and most populous of the statistical localities or urban areas in Sweden. It has no administrative function of its own, but constitutes a continuous built-up area, which extends into 11 municipalities in ...

, was announced as the final venue on 30 June 2015, following the decision of the UEFA Executive Committee meeting in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

, Czech Republic.

Background

This was Ajax's second final in the UEFA Cup/Europa League, having won in the 1992 UEFA Cup Final over

Torino Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

on away goals. This was Manchester United's first final in the UEFA Cup/Europa League. They were seeking to become the only the fifth club to have won all three major European trophies at the time ( European Champion Clubs' Cup/UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup/Europa League, and the now-defunct

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European association football, football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The competition's official name was originally the European Cup Winners' Cup; it was renam ...

). The two sides had previously met four times in European competitions, all in the UEFA Cup/Europa League, with a record of two wins each. However, Manchester United had eliminated Ajax on both occasions, 2–1 on aggregate in the

1976–77 UEFA Cup The 1976–77 UEFA Cup was the sixth season of the UEFA Cup, the third-tier club football competition organised by UEFA. The final was played over two legs at Stadio Comunale, Turin, Italy, and at San Mamés, Bilbao, Spain. It was won by Juvent ...

first round, and 3–2 on aggregate in the 2011–12 UEFA Europa League round of 32.

Previous finals

''In the following table, finals until 2009 were in the UEFA Cup era, since 2010 were in the UEFA Europa League era.''

Route to the final

''Note: In the table, the score of the finalist is given first (H = home; A = away).''

Pre-match

Ambassador

The ambassador for the final was former Swedish international player

Patrik Andersson Patrik Jonas Andersson (; born 18 August 1971) is a Swedish former professional association football, footballer who played as a defender (association football), defender. Starting off his career with Malmö FF in the late 1980s, he went on to ...

, who won the Champions League with Bayern Munich against

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

Identity

UEFA unveiled the brand identity of the final on 26 August 2016 in

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

during the group stage draw.

Ticketing

With a stadium capacity of 48,000 for the final, a total number of 37,000 tickets were available to fans and the general public, with the two finalist teams receiving 10,000 tickets each and with 17,000 tickets being available for sale to fans worldwide via UEFA.com from 17 to 28 March 2017 in four price categories: €150, €100, €70 and €45. The remaining tickets were allocated to the local organising committee, UEFA and national associations, commercial partners and broadcasters, and to serve the corporate hospitality programme.

Officials

In May 2017, Slovenian

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 ...

Damir Skomina was chosen to oversee the final. He was joined by compatriots Jure Praprotnik and Robert Vukan as assistant referees,

Matej Jug Matej Jug (born 25 September 1980) is a Slovenian international referee. Career Matej Jug became a FIFA referee in 2007. He has refereed at the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers and UEFA Euro 2012 qualification.UEFA The Union of European ...

and

Slavko Vinčić Slavko Vinčić (born 25 November 1979) is a Slovenian Association football, football Referee (association football), referee. He has been an international-listed referee for FIFA since 2010. Vinčić went to UEFA Euro 2012 as additional assista ...

as additional assistant referees, Tomaž Klančnik as reserve assistant referee, and Italian official Gianluca Rocchi 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 ...

Opening ceremony

A minute's silence was observed before the final in memory to victims of the bombing in Manchester which occurred two days before the final; the opening ceremony was thus considerably reduced.

Match

2017 UEFA Europa League Final first half

Summary

Paul Pogba opened the scoring for Manchester United in the 18th minute when his low left foot shot from just outside the penalty area took a deflection off Davinson Sánchez which wrong footed the goalkeeper before looping over him and into the net. Henrikh Mkhitaryan got the second goal three minutes into the second half when with his back to goal he flicked the ball into the net with his right foot from three yards out after the ball had been knocked down to him by

Chris Smalling Christopher Lloyd Smalling (born 22 November 1989) is an English professional Association football, footballer who plays as a centre-back for Saudi Pro League club Al-Fayha FC, Al-Fayha. Smalling represented the England national football team, ...

after a corner from the right by

Juan Mata Juan Manuel Mata García (born 28 April 1988) is a Spanish professional Association football, footballer who plays as a midfielder for A-League Men club Western Sydney Wanderers FC, Western Sydney Wanderers. He primarily plays as an attacking ...

Wayne Rooney Wayne Mark Rooney (born 24 October 1985) is an English professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Association football, player who was most recently the head coach of EFL Championship club Plymouth Argyle F.C., Pl ...

, who entered minutes before the final whistle, took the captain's armband and later led the team to lift the trophy in his final game for United; he would return to Everton less than two months later.

Details

The "home" team (for administrative purposes) was determined by an additional draw held after the semi-final draw, which was held on 21 April 2017 at UEFA headquarters in

Nyon Nyon (; historically German language, German: or and Italian language, Italian: , ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in Nyon District in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is located some 25 kilometer ...

, Switzerland. Ajax as the "home" team played with their new home kit which would be used the following season. United wore their outgoing away (European third) kit.

Statistics

References

External links

2016–17 UEFA Europa League
UEFA.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Uefa Europa League Final 2017

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

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 ...

Europa League Final International club association football competitions hosted by Sweden Association football matches in Sweden AFC Ajax matches Manchester United F.C. matches Europa League Final Europa League Final May 2017 sports events in Europe 2017 in association football Sports competitions in Solna