2012 UEFA Europa League final

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 Romania.

The stadium was built on the site of the former national stadium, and opened on 6 September 2011 with a UEFA Euro 2012 Group D qualifier match between Romania and France.

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, when Sevilla 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 UEFA Champions League, 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, beating Fulham 2–1 after extra time. Athletic Bilbao lost in 1977 to Juventus 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 finals, with Athletic Bilbao winning two and Atlético Madrid winning one. In the 2011–12 La Liga season, Athletic Bilbao won their home fixture 3–0 and Atlético Madrid won their home fixture 2–1.

After losing to Udinese 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 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 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.

Ambassador

Former Romanian player Miodrag Belodedici was named as the ambassador for the final.

Match

Details

• Falcao
• Diego

|}

Statistics

References

References

1. Atkin, John. (9 May 2012). "Falcao at double as Atlético march to title". UEFA.
2. (7 May 2012). "Stark gets Bucharest call-up". UEFA.
3. (9 May 2012). "Tactical Lineups – Final – Wednesday 9 May 2012". UEFA.
4. "2011/12 draw and match calendar". UEFA.
5. (11 April 2012). "UEFA Europa League trophy handed to Bucharest". UEFA.
6. (9 May 2012). "Atl Madrid 3–0 Athletic Bilbao". BBC Sport.
7. Jonathan Wilson. (9 May 2012). "Europa League: Radamel Falcao's Atlético Madrid rout Athletic Bilbao". The Guardian.
8. (30 January 2009). "UEFA unveil 2011 and 2012 final venues". UEFA.
9. (7 May 2012). "Final shining spotlight on local rivalries". UEFA.
10. (27 April 2012). "Bucharest stage set for all-Spanish showpiece". UEFA.
11. (24 August 2011). "Fenerbahçe replaced in UEFA Champions League". UEFA.
12. (7 March 2012). "UEFA Europa League Final 2012 ticket sales launched". UEFA.
13. (1 March 2012). "Ambassador: Miodrag Belodedici". UEFA.
14. (7 May 2012). "Full Time Summary Final – Atlético Madrid v Athletic Bilbao". UEFA.
15. (March 2011). "Regulations of the UEFA Europa League 2011/12". UEFA.
16. (9 May 2012). "Team statistics". UEFA.