The 2024 UEFA Europa Conference League final was the final match of the

2023–24 UEFA Europa Conference League The 2023–24 UEFA Europa Conference League was the third season of the UEFA Europa Conference League, Europe's tertiary club association football, football tournament organised by UEFA. The 2024 UEFA Europa Conference League final, final was ...

, the third season of Europe's tertiary 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 ...

. It was held at the

Agia Sophia Stadium The Agia Sophia Stadium (), also known as OPAP Arena for sponsorship reasons and as AEK Arena for UEFA competitions, is the home stadium of AEK Athens. With an all-seater capacity of 32,500 it is the third largest football stadium overall in Gre ...

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

, Greece, on 29 May 2024, between Greek club

Olympiacos Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós (, Olympic Association of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a number of different competitive departments which participate in football, ...

and Italian club

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 ...

. Olympiacos won the match 1–0 after

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

courtesy of a header by

Ayoub El Kaabi Ayoub El Kaabi (; born 25 June 1993) is a Moroccan professional association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football)#Striker, striker for Super League Greece club Olympiacos F.C., Olympiacos and the Morocco national foo ...

for their first European title, also becoming the first Greek club to win a European trophy. As winners, they qualified for the league phase of the

2024–25 UEFA Europa League The 2024–25 UEFA Europa League was the 54th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 16th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. This was the first season played under ...

. Meanwhile, Fiorentina lost their second consecutive final, becoming the first team to lose European finals in consecutive seasons since Benfica in the

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

and

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

Europa League finals.

Background

This was

' first European final and only the second to feature a Greek team, the other coming in the 1971 European Cup final which Panathinaikos lost to

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 ...

. Five weeks prior to this final, Olympiacos' under-19 team had won the 2023–24 UEFA Youth League, the first UEFA competition win for a Greek club at any level.

became the first club to play in two UEFA Europa Conference League finals and the first to contest them consecutively. Fiorentina were looking to win their first major trophy since winning the 2000–01 Coppa Italia, and their first European title since winning the

1960–61 European Cup Winners' Cup The 1960–61 season of the European Cup Winners' Cup club football tournament was won by Italian club Fiorentina in two-legged final victory against Rangers of Scotland. Organised by the Mitropa Cup committee, this tournament's edition was rec ...

. Both managers were seeking their first Europa Conference League title, with Olympiacos'

José Luis Mendilibar José Luis Mendilibar Etxebarria (born 14 March 1961) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a midfielder, currently manager of Super League Greece club Olympiacos. He played no higher than Segunda División, making 290 appea ...

the more experienced in winning a European trophy, having won the previous year's Europa League final with

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 ...

. With a win, Mendilibar would become the first manager to win two different major European trophies in consecutive seasons since fellow Spaniard

Rafael Benítez Rafael Benítez Maudes (born 16 April 1960) is a Spanish professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player. He was most recently the manager of La Liga club RC Celta de Vigo, Celta Vigo. Beníte ...

won the

2003–04 UEFA Cup The 2003–04 UEFA Cup was won by Valencia in the final against Marseille. It wrapped up a league and UEFA Cup double for Valencia. Porto could not defend their title as they automatically qualified for the 2003–04 UEFA Champions League and a ...

with

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 ...

and the

2004–05 UEFA Champions League The 2004–05 UEFA Champions League was the 50th season of UEFA's premier European club football tournament, and the 13th since it was rebranded as the UEFA Champions League in 1992. The competition was won by Liverpool, who beat Milan on penalt ...

with

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 ...

, the sixth manager ever to achieve that, and the second to do it with different clubs.

Previous finals

Venue

The

, known as the OPAP Arena for sponsorship reasons, was home of

AEK Athens A.E.K. (; Athlitikí Énosis Konstantinoupόleos, ''Athletic Union of Constantinople'') is a major Greek multi-sport club based in Nea Filadelfeia, Attica. The club is more commonly known in European competitions as A.E.K. Athens. Establishe ...

, one of Olympiacos' local rivals. The stadium opened in September 2022, and had a capacity of 31,100. The match was the eighth single-leg UEFA club final to be played in Greece, having hosted three European Cup/Champions League finals (in

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

and

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

), three

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 ...

finals (in

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...

1973 Events January * January 1 – The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 14 - The 16-0 19 ...

and

1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...

) and the

2023 UEFA Super Cup The 2023 UEFA Super Cup was the 48th edition of the UEFA Super Cup, an annual football match organised by UEFA and contested by the reigning champions of the top two European club competitions, the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League. ...

Host selection

On 21 June 2022, UEFA opened the bidding process for the final, which was held in parallel with that of the 2025 final. Interested bidders could bid for either one or both of the finals. The proposed venues had to include natural grass and be ranked as a UEFA category four stadium, with a gross capacity of between 30,000 and 50,000 preferred. The bidding timeline was as follows: *21 June 2022: Applications formally invited *31 August 2022: Closing date for registering intention to bid *7 September 2022: Bid requirements made available to bidders *3 November 2022: Submission of preliminary bid dossier *23 February 2023: Submission of final bid dossier *28 June 2023: Appointment of host The UEFA Executive Committee appointed the Agia Sophia Stadium as the host during their meeting 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, on 28 June 2023. As the stadium is new and has never been operated by the club for international competitions, the venue is subject to an observation period until November 2023 for matches played in UEFA club competitions and

UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from March 2023 to March 2024 to determine the 23 UEFA member men's national teams that would join the automatically qualified host team Germany in the UEFA Eur ...

. Should the venue meet the requirements, the appointment will be officially confirmed in December 2023.

Route to the final

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

Pre-match

Identity

The original identity of the 2024 UEFA Europa Conference League final was unveiled at the group stage draw on 1 September 2023.

Ticketing

The stadium has a capacity of 32,500, and 27,100 were made available of which 21,000 were on sale to the general public. Each club in the final received an allocation of 9,000 tickets each.

Match

Summary

After a goalless ninety minutes, the match went into extra-time. In the 116th minute Olympiacos went in front when

got the only goal of the match when he stooped low to head the ball into the left corner of the net after a cross from the left by Santiago Hezze. After a lengthy VAR check the goal was eventually awarded and Olympiacos went on to win their first European trophy.

Details

The "home" team (for administrative purposes) was determined by an additional draw held after the quarter-final and semi-final draws.

Statistics

Post-match

After the match Prime Minister of Greece

Kyriakos Mitsotakis Kyriakos Mitsotakis (, ; born 4 March 1968) is a Greek politician currently serving as the prime minister of Greece since July 2019, except for a month between May and June 2023. Mitsotakis has been president of the New Democracy (Greece), New ...

made a post on social media platform X, describing Olympiacos as "a true legend". This win caused a big celebration with several thousand Olympiacos fans gathered in

Piraeus Piraeus ( ; ; , Ancient: , Katharevousa: ) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece. It is located southwest of Athens city centre along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf in the Ath ...

, Greece.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Uefa Europa Conference League Final 2024

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

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 ...

May 2024 sports events in Europe 2023–24 in Greek football Olympiacos F.C. matches ACF Fiorentina matches 2023–24 in Italian football International club association football competitions hosted by Greece Sports competitions in Athens 2020s in Athens May 2024 in Greece