Athletico Madrid claim Europa League title

Europa League Final (Wednesday 16 May 2018)

Author: Mark Szczuka

Photos by Stephen Gormley, RedEye

Spain continued their recent dominance of the Europa League with Athletico Madrid comfortably defeating Marseille 3-0 to secure their 6^th win of the tournament in the last 9 seasons. 3 of those wins have come from Athletico and 3 from Sevilla.

The final was played in front of 56,000 fans in Lyon, with many of the neutral area tickets being snapped up by Marseille fans (the two French cities are just a short 1hr 45 min TGV ride away from each other). This was the highest attendance at a Europa League Final in 19 years – coincidentally Marseille were defeated 3-0 in the final back then as well! That final was played in front of 62,000 fans in the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, which is the venue of this summer’s World Cup Final.

The match was decided by two goals for Athletico’s French internationalist Antoine Griezmann followed by a late 3^rd goal by club captain Gabi.

Club legend Fernando Torres came on for Greizmann for the final 2 minutes of the match after Gabi had scored and then helped the captain lift the trophy at the end of the match. Torres started his career at Athletico at the young age of 11 and played in the youth team and then the full team until he left for Liverpool at the age of 23. He returned in 2015 after spells at Chelsea and AC Milan and has been at the club for the past 3.5 years before confirming that he would be leaving at the end of this season. It was fitting that in his final few days at his boyhood club, which he also supported as a child, he finally got the chance to win a major trophy.