Tottenham Hotspur lifted their first trophy in 17 years on Wednesday as they beat Manchester United in the UEFA Europa League final. Here, we look at where the game was decided.
It wasn’t a classic, but Tottenham fans won’t care.
Spurs beat Manchester United 1-0 on Wednesday in Bilbao to win the Europa League, earning them their first trophy since the 2008 EFL Cup.
Furthermore, it also secured them UEFA Champions League football for next season, while Man Utd are left reflecting on their worst season since they were last relegated in the early 1970s.
While the game wasn’t a thriller, there’s plenty to look back on as decisive in ensuring the trophy heads to north London…
Tactical (In)flexibility
In some respects, Wednesday’s Europa League final was entirely predictable.
While Ruben Amorim set his Manchester United side out in the way he always does, Ange Postecoglou adopted what has come to be seen as his Europa League system.
The Australian’s ‘Angeball’ philosophy has been spoken about a lot in his two seasons at the club, but in Europe this year, he’s been far more pragmatic and adapted his setup considerably.
We highlighted this ahead of the final, and sure enough Tottenham played in a similar way yet again.
“I’ve always felt that knockout football is different from your league football,” he said after the game. “When you’re in that situation, it comes down really to good organisation, belief, having a good game plan and then moments; if you can minimise the moments the opposition have by having a really strong foundation.
“I always felt comfortable that if we got ahead, we could negate most of what Manchester United were going to throw at us.”
United were probably the better (or more attack-minded) team, but Postecoglou’s confidence was ultimately well placed.
Amorim has hardly altered his system since arriving at United; call it belief or stubbornness, but his team have largely been ineffective going forward. And despite having 72.3% of the ball in Bilbao on Wednesday, their 16 shots amounted to just 0.97 expected goals (xG).
It seemed as though Amorim trundled along as ever, hoping either Bruno Fernandes produced something to bail them out, or for some reason something clicked for the collective. On the other hand, Postecoglou tweaked Tottenham for “tournament football” and they were ultimately successful despite their 27.7% possession and 115 completed passes the lowest on record by any team in a major European final since at least 2009-10.
Spurs knew United wouldn’t be good enough to break them down, and that was the difference in Bilbao.
Ruben Amorim’s Hesistancy
When United conceded on the stroke of half-time, for most watching there was likely a feeling Amorim would need to change something at the break.
Sure, they’d probably shaded the encounter until the goal, but you couldn’t feasibly say United looked threatening. Mason Mount struggled to get involved, and Rasmus Højlund was isolated and ineffective against Spurs’ two excellent centre-backs.
United had – unlike their opponents – plenty of options on the bench, though, namely Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo, plus the surprisingly fit-again Joshua Zirkzee.
Considering the injury problems they’ve had in the second half of the season, this was verging on an embarrassment of riches.
But as the minutes ticked by, United not really growing as a threat even if their possession share steadily grew, their subs continued to warm up on the sidelines.
It wasn’t until the 71st minute that Amorim rolled the dice, bringing on Garnacho and Zirkzee for Mount and Hojlund, whose contributions hadn’t improved a great deal – if at all.
The Argentina international offered some directness and at least gave Pedro Porro something to think about, while Zirkzee’s movement and first-time offloads helped create a modicum of uncertainty between the previously comfortable Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven.
But they couldn’t change the game.
Garnacho openly questioned Amorim’s decision in the mixed zone after the game, saying to reporters: “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.”
Amorim’s hesitancy was made even stranger by the fact that, on average, he’s made his first substitution in matches in the 55th minute across all competitions since he was hired.
While it’s impossible to say the outcome would’ve been different had Amorim acted at half-time, or the 55th minute, at least an earlier change may have suggested a little more proactivity.
Bye Bye Bruno?
Might that be the beginning of the end for Bruno Fernandes in a Manchester United shirt? After the game, the captain was candid about his future at the club.
“I will be here until the club tells me it is time to leave,” Fernandes said. “If the club thinks it is time to leave, because they want to make some money, that is what it is, and football is like that sometimes.”
If this was effectively his farewell (not completely forgetting about Sunday’s visit of Aston Villa), it will be a painful way for him to bow out. For so much of this season – and in previous campaigns – Fernandes has been a rare bright spot during some of United’s darkest moments. If anyone deserved something from the Red Devils’ dismal 2024-25 season, it was him.
On the night though, he was hugely ineffective. Played in central midfield rather than his more familiar number 10 role, his performance fell well below his usual standards. The Portuguese midfielder completed just 37 of his 54 passes on the night, with his passing accuracy of 68.5% the third lowest of any game he’s started this season.
What makes that even more alarming is that he wasn’t exactly looking for the killer ball all the time. He was just uncharacteristically sloppy, even with simpler, shorter passes, including giving possession away with a telegraphed pass that eventually led to Tottenham’s goal.
Operating deeper and in front of Spurs’ low block, Fernandes’ pass map mirrored United’s overall struggles: sideways passes in front of a settled defence, with very little forward penetration, particularly through the middle.
He simply wasn’t on the ball in dangerous areas and had to force things against a disciplined Spurs backline.
It is hard to be too critical of Fernandes, who’s been comfortably United’s most consistent performer ever since joining the club in February 2020. But he struggled to make any sort of positive impact on Wednesday, and that proved costly.
Højlund Dominated by Romero and Van de Ven
As alluded to before, it was another difficult outing in a season defined by them for Højlund. Supposed to be United’s focal point in attack, the Dane was largely anonymous – his only notable moment came from a looping header that was cleared off the line by Van de Ven.
In fairness, he was often marshalled by Romero and Van de Ven, but the pair nullified him with ease. The Dane won only one of his five contested aerial duels and four of his 10 duels in total. He completed just five passes in 70 minutes of action – and one of those was from kick-off.
It was surprising Amorim took as long as he did to replace him with Zirkzee, who at least offered something different by dropping deeper into a false nine role and linking play more effectively.
While the service to Højlund was poor, it never felt like he was going to create anything for himself. With just 10 goals from 51 appearances in all competitions this season (37 starts), you feel like a change is needed in the striker department this summer.
Yes, he’s still raw, but that return simply isn’t good enough for a club with United’s ambitions, and he isn’t offering enough elsewhere to make up for the shortfall.
Lacking Initiative
This was yet another game that Manchester United fell behind in, giving themselves a tougher job once again.
Going behind doesn’t have to be terminal – it can spark a team into action on occasion. But when it’s quite evident that you are lacking attacking quality, it’s probably not the best tactic to continuously rely on comebacks. That Lyon turnaround was a freak occurrence.
Last night’s final was the 31st time in all competitions that United have conceded the opening goal of the game in 2024-25, more than any other Premier League side.
Amorim pointed out only last week that, despite a poor run of results yielding just three wins from 13 competitive matches, his side had been creating better chances than their opponents in recent weeks.
“If you see the xG, for example, in the last games, ours is bigger,” he said. While not entirely untrue, the Portuguese boss failed to bring game state into the equation.
If a team is losing in a game, they would of course be expected to try to attack more to get back into the match and salvage something.
United’s problem in recent months has been that they only really start creating reasonable chances once they go behind and are chasing the game. They had just three shots in 41 minutes on Wednesday before conceding to Brennan Johnson, whereas they attempted 13 in 59 minutes (including added time) afterwards. Spurs didn’t even register a single attempt after they went ahead late in the first half.
In the 13 matches since winning back-to-back games against Real Sociedad and Leicester City with relative ease, United have often had better chances than their opponents – that much is true. The issue is the position they’ve found themselves in when creating those chances.
Their xG total of 21.5 is five more than what their opponents have managed (16.5) in all competitions over those 13 matches, but over half of that xG total has come when they were in a losing position and chasing the game.
United went into the final having lost all of their first three games against Tottenham this season, conceding the opening goal every time. Bilbao proved to be no different, and it was once again their undoing.
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