Mancashter United (Bilbao) 21.05.2025

Starting the match with more or less the side that beat Bodo/Glimt in the sei-final second leg, Heung-Min Son started on the bench.  Spurs kicked off the match amidst a cacophony of noise from the Tottenham fans as Spurs forced a corner inside the second minute when Brennan Johnson pressured Shaw into kicking the ball out, but a free-kick was given when Maguire went down weakly.  It looked as though United were going to be favoured by the German referee who had been banned in a bribery scandal, as Romero leapt prodigiously over Hojlund to win a header and another free-kick went the Mancs way.  It was played in to the far post where a header was won by a red shirt and Udogie in trying to clear sliced the ball off for a corner.  That was cleared, but when it was played back in, Vicario went out beyond his post to the left but didn’t collect and Hojlund played it back to Fernandes who turned back inside to shoot against Mount, who blocked the effort. 

Falling to ground became a theme for the United players, with Casemiro the latest to win a soft free-kick.  Richarlison went down when challenged and no free-kick !  Spurs were closing in on the red shirts quickly and forced errors to turn over possession.  In the ninth minute, Pedro Porro did well to put in a cross that committed Onana, who was never going to get there, but Mazraoui got a flick on it with his head with Richarlison running in behind him.  From the corner, it was amazing that the same sort of foul van de Ven was penalised for on Maguire, this time Maguire had his arms around Micky’s neck and nothing was given.  Amazing in this day and age with VAR that this wasn’t picked up.  Tottenham built from the back and Johnson intercepted a poor pass from Maguire intended for Shaw and ran into the box with Maguire in his wake.  With Richi arriving at the far post, Brennan drove it across and Onana got a hand to it, diverting the ball out to the edge of the area, where Pape Matar Sarr ran onto it and smashed a shot at goal that was blocked by Maguire before it was hoofed clear.  

As the ball was played out to the right Mazraoui clattered into Richarlison as he attempted to win a header, but in reality was never going to get near it.  Porro’s free-kick was played in with pace and hit Richi before United made a mess of clearing it and the Brazilian got onto it again, putting in a shot that was deflected wide for a corner.  When Johnson jumped for the ball when it was cleared, he caught Dorgu in the face with his forearm, so Fernandes was straight into the referee’s face asking for a card.  Dorgu then went down in the box when Rodrigo Bentancur came across to make a great challenge, then the United left back got on the end of a long pass out to his wing and played the ball in first time, as Romero cleared it out for a corner, with Vicario going to ground behind him if he missed it.  The ball was played towards the far post and Vic came out and got a touch to it, despite being pushed in the back by Hojlund, but Diallo got onto it and fired across goal and wide with nobody getting a touch on the ball. 

Bissouma stopped a run by Diallo down their right wing and soon the ball was played up the same line with Richi, Dominic Solanke and Destiny Udogie all going forward, with Richarlison playing a ball into the near post run of Sarr, but he couldn’t get much on it, with Shaw right behind him and stuck out a leg to knock the ball away.  A slight touch in the face by Udogie’s hand once more saw Fernandes trying to make more of it than it really was, but when Porro was caught by a Mount tackle, play went on with Diallo robbing Udogie, but Yves Bissouma got back quickly to stop him going any further.  Udogie won an important header at the far post to stop Mazraoui getting on the end of Dorgu’s cross and then Vic held the low cross that came in from Fernandes along the ground. 

Mount falling down under Johnson’s tackle won another free-kick that went over everyone’s heads and Romero knocked the ball down the line past Romero, with the United winger then at least obstructing him, if not pulling him down, but it ended up as a United throw.  Tottenham did get a free-kick which should have seen Casemiro go into the book when he dragged down Dom, having slid to the ground and had no chance of winning the ball.  A long ball forward by Porro saw Solanke pin Maguire behind him, but the United defender turned him around by holding onto him to clear the ball although the ref gave nothing, but a long cross from the other wing by destiny panicked Dorgu into chesting the ball of for a corner with no Spurs player near him.  Just before the half hour, on the halfway line, Udogie did to Diallo what Maguire had just done to Dominic and a free-kick went United’s way.  Consistency ?  What’s that ?

From the free-kick another cross came in which Johnson defended well at the near post to give away another corner, but inside the area, Hojlund caught Romero in the face with an elbow and the Spurs skipper needed a while to get up, although Maguire thought that he was making more of it than it was worth (and Maguire should know all about that).  While Fernandes was moaning at the ref for a throw-in that was given against United, Biss ran the ball down the line before being taken out by Mazraoui with no free-kick given once again.  With the Spurs number 8 still feeling the contact on the ground, United were unable to make use of the man advantage, as a pass for Dorgu went straight out of play.  When play resumed Destiny broke away from Diallo on halfway and the United player pulled his shirt twice but couldn’t stop him, but Fernandes did with a stamp tackle that brought a free-kick and a booking for Diallo, but not one for Fernandes, which would have been deserved as it was late.

Richarlison just over-hit a pass through the middle for Solanke, but in the ensuing attempt by United to clear, Solanke chased and Pape closed down Yoro, but the ball ran off him through to the keeper.  Onana cleared the ball and Dom won the header in the centre circle, but there was a clash of heads with Fernandes, who wanted a card shown.  He really is a whinger and luckily the one good thing the referee did was not listen to him.  The ball went out wide to Diallo, who came inside looking for a shot which Richi half-blocked and went gently through to Vicario, with the United youngster then going to ground looking for yet another free-kick, but all he got was a piece of the Brazilian’s mind for his antics.  While United showed their lack of class but playing on when Bissouma was injured, Destiny toed the ball off so that Diallo could receive attention.  

On the halfway line, Pape intercepted a short pass made by Fernandes and moved forward with it.  He knocked it to his left for Richi, with Bentancur making a run into the left corner of the box, the ball was moved forward for the Uruguayan to collect.  He held off Fernandes and laid the ball back for Sarr to take one touch and whip in a cross low to the near post.  Brennan Johnson darted in ahead of Dorgu and Shaw who were both unaware of his presence, and got a touch on the ball.  It hit Shaw – it could have been a handball – but dropped for Brennan to get the slightest of touches on it to confuse Onana and the ball crept over the line at the foot of the post.  The Spurs end went berserk with joy as the goal was well worked down the left and Johnson was alive at the far side to get across the defenders to poach a goal.  1-0 to Spurs.

Fernandes got onto a ball over the top and looked to shape a shot at goal, but Micky was quickly out to the left to block the effort.  United were pumping high balls into the box until Vicario came to claim a long cross and held on to it to defuse the pressure.  Richi then made Mazraoui look stupid by stopping the ball and then turning away from him to put in a cross that went out on the far side for a throw, but that signalled the end of two minutes added time.

It was a relief that the half-time whistle blew, but before we knew it, the teams were out again, with United punting it forward and Pape Matar Sarr winning a header over Hojlund, but clashing heads with Romero.  “When The Spurs Go Marching In” rang out from the North end of the stadium, as United enjoyed a lot of possession at the start of the half.  Diallo dinked a ball into the box from the right corner of the area, but it was behind an unmarked Hojlund, whose header drifted wide.  It was ironic that van de Ven’s nudge on Hojlund earned him a booking after what the ref had allowed United to get away with in the first half and the free-kick was swung in to be met by Bissouma’s head.  The ball went up in the air to the far post and Bentancur headed it away, while Maguire pushed Romero to the ground after holding onto him.  Cristian was having none of it and was quickly up and in the United and former England player’s face.  It was nice to see a Spurs player showing he wouldn’t be bullied, just as Udogie had done to Fernandes in the first half and Tottenham were being strong in their challenges, letting United players know that they were there.

When Udogie poked the ball against Diallo to win a throw the United winger then showed dissent to the linesman, which was dangerous as he had already been booked.  Richarlison did get a yellow card for a tackle on Mazraoui that was a similar tackle to Mazraoui’s on Bissouma.  Another example of the lack of consistency in the refereeing of the game.  It handed Fernandes an opportunity to play a low ball into the near post from 25 yards out, with Yoro going for it, but Vicario was there to block the ball and it was hooked out of the box by Solanke.  Spurs were sitting deeper and United were having the vast majority of possession.  While it was a problem for Tottenham to hold onto the ball, when Johnson went away down the right wing, he toed the ball past Dorgu, who then slid into him, bowling him over.  The result – a United goal-kick.  You had the feeling that one of these bad decisions might cost us.

Destiny Udogie did well on the hour to make a well-timed tackle on Diallo inside the Tottenham box as the United man tried to manoeuvre into a shooting position, then the Italian broke away over three-quarters of the pitch before chopping the ball right for Dom, but the ball was a little under his feet and ran away form him, otherwise he would have been in on Onana.  Richarlison did some solid defending, getting back to win the ball off Diallo and playing it up the line where Yoro put it into touch, He went down soon afterwards and Son had been readied to replace the Brazilian, who had put in a good shift.

Diallo went down again, when Son fouled him then Bissouma tried to grab the ball from him and got booked for that.  From that free-kick on 67 minutes, the ball was played high into the Spurs box.  Vicario came for it, the ball went through his hands, hit his head and went away form goal, but Hojlund headed it back on target into a seemingly empty net.  Then, out of nowhere, Micky van de Ven appeared and contorted himself to get his leg high above his head to shin the ball off the line.  Yoro hit a follow-up shot that Romero blocked and Spurs survived with their lead intact.  Micky hit the ground hard and also went into the post, with it looking difficult for him to walk, but he continued to play on.

United substituted Hojlund and Mount, replacing them with Garnacho and Zirkzee.  It brought a cross from Mazraoui that was met by a diving Fernandes header with the United man unmarked, but he out it well off target and then, with 15 minutes left, Garnacho ran into the box and fired a low shot that bounced just in front of Vic, but the Spurs goalkeeper got a big left hand to it to push it wide.  It was a super save and could easily have beaten him, but he got down quickly to the ball and put in a strong wrist to divert it away from goal.  When United tried to switch the ball to their right, Udogie read Fernandes’ pass inside and sent Sonny away, but as he crossed halfway, Dorgu had covered his run and made a good tackle to win the ball.  Then Shaw went down the left and as he approached the side of the penalty area, Porro slid in with the United defender going to ground.  The referee pointed into the Spurs penalty area straight away, but luckily, it was for a goal kick to us and not a penalty to them !  

77 minutes gone and Brennan Johnson left the field with Kevin Danso coming on to bolster the defence employing a 5-4-1 formation.  Porro made a good block on Garnacho’s cross and played the ball up the line for Solanke to take on Maguire and Fernandes tight to the right touchline before trying to set Son free inside him, but Mazraoui had come across from right back to slide the ball away form the Spurs captain.  Amorin who was more often than not outside his box was almost on the pitch at times and he was furious when Udogie broke 50 yards with the ball before being bundled over by Zirkzee, who got a booking.  Straight away Fernandes was harassing the ref at close quarters.  Sonny played the ball over the United back line from the free-kick aiming for the far post, where Kevin Danso came in, but the ball bounced just too high for him to reach it.  

Maguire was at Romero again, as the United man was given offside and rather than winding the Spurs defender up, Maguire was losing his own head.  With Fernandes contesting every decision with the ref, he was also losing his focus on the game and when that happens, it is almost like they are playing a man short.  with four minutes left, Zirkzee cam inside to his left to hit s shot from outside the box, which Bissouma threw himself in the way of, then another ball was slung into the box with Maguire going down looking for a penalty when the ball sailed into Vicario’s hands, followed by more pushing with Romero and finger-pointing involving Zirkzee.  Danso did a good job in pushing Maguire a long way away from the argument.  A late challenge by the United carthorse, flying inot ROmero in the air saw a yellow card flashed in his direction and frankly, that had been a long time coming.

Ange brought on some fresh legs in the shape of Djed Spence and Archie Gray, with Udogie and Pape Matar Sarr going off as the clock ticked over to 90 minutes.  Seven minutes was shown to be added on, so with United having a throw, the ref stopped it being taken while he went over to their bench and waved a yellow card in their direction, later it was revealed it was for Evans, who had been having a go at the fourth official.

Still United threw in cross after cross, but Kevin Danso did enough to make Maguire out his head off target, much to his disgust wanting a penalty when both players were holding.  It was the Tottenham boys who were making “all the noise” as Son held off a challenge from Dalot, who then pushed him over winning a free-kick in the United half, before Dalot kicked the ball away, straight into Diallo’s face !  A fat United kid who was delighted to see himself on the big screen ten minutes before was then shown in tears as Danso headed another cross away under great pressure, then Gray cut out a pull back inside the area and the ball was given back to United, with Yoro lining up a shot from 20 yards out that sailed into the crowd with two and a half minutes left to play. 

A massive up and under by Dalot to the far post ended up with Casemiro going to ground, wanting a penalty, but it was just that at his age he was finding it hard to not fall over.  The referee realised this and waved away his fraudulent claims.  Dalot’s next cross with 40 seconds left was met by a meaty downwards header by Shaw, but Vicario was equal to it, diving low to his left to push the ball wide, then Danso won another big header away before Bissouma threw a block to stop Dalot’s cross going anywhere at the expense of a corner.  It was United’s last chance.  Onana was up in the Spurs area, with the ball coming in and Bissouma winning a header that took the ball to the far post, where Casemiro fell over again, this time trying an overhead kick, which went into the side-netting,  The bloke next to me thought it had gone in, but that would be enough for Spurs to see it through to the final whistle, which the referee was indicating would be blown once the goal-kick was taken.  Bissouma went down and was told by Micky to get up, as not further added time was going to be added on now.  

Twenty minutes after the end of the game, when Spurs players, staff and fans had celebrated hard before the presentation could start to take place,  By that time, the majority of the United fans had fled from their seats and the United players had to wait and take in the reality of their defeat – the fourth by Tottenham this season.  First the match officials collected their medals, then Tottenham formed a guard of honour for the losers to go up and collect theirs.  They had only lost one match in this competition this season, but for them it was the one that counted most.  

Then it was time for the massed ranks of the Spurs squad and backroom staff to go up and go past Jim Ratcliffe, the United investor and Spurs chairman Daniel Levy by Ange Postecoglou.  So many were there that UEFA ran out of medals, only having taken 30 out to the rostrum.  Dejan Kulusevski couldn’t go up on the runway as it was too slippery for him with the crutches he had to use.  The noise when Heung-Min Son lifted the trophy above his head was ear-splitting as was the singing that followed … “We Are The Champions”, “Can’t Smile Without You”, “Freed From Desire”, etc.

It was great to see the on pitch celebrations, with Spence chasing Odobert around and nearly breaking his neck when he pulled his bib off him and then started whipping him with it.  Richi looked like he was going to break his neck when he climbed on the barrier fence before crossing the no-mans land to get in with the fans and the families joined the players on the pitch in touching moments together.  There were a number of ex-Spurs players in there too, with Ledley King, Gary Mabbutt, Mark Falco, David Howells, Sebastien Bassong, Emmanuel Adebayor and Micky Hazard among those joining in with the current players.  It was odd to see Romero kicking a ball about with his little son in the other half of the pitch (with Porro trying to slide tackle the youngster !) while the rest of the squad were still camped in front of the Tottenham end.  As the celebrations went into an hour and a half, stewards lined up at the other end and menacingly moved towards the joyous Spurs players and staff (notably not trying to move Romero and son), eventually corralling them in one corner.  We didn’t see what happened as we had to get back to catch our coach home, with the return 24 hour journey ahead of us, but the end justified the means and I would do it again. 

The fans were together in getting behind the team on the night, with too many occasions this season there has been a lack of backing and you can see what it means to the players.  The majority of the game, all you could hear was the Spurs fans, with the “Turn Bilbao Lilywhite” message paying off as the Tottenham end was a white background for the tifo of flags spelling out DARE, while the other end was a mish-mash of United shirts (we saw red, white, black, dark blue, light blue, dark green, grey and green/yellow ones while walking around the city) and their flags were indistinct as they were lost when they were waved.

The way Tottenham performed was much different to the Angeball that had typified the matches of last season and the early days of this, but the defensive display was enough to keep United at bay.  To be honest, their approach was one dimensional and the fact that Spurs dropped deep didn’t allow them to drop ball beyond the defence, which would have been possible if a high line had been played.  It forced them to play wide and put in 30 crosses, the majority of them landing on Tottenham heads.  Ange had masterminded the way to counter anything that United had to offer and while it was only a 1-0 win, how often do we win by that score-line ?  And winning this final was another “Home” win in this competition as we were technically the home side.

Of course, in the heady moments after the game, it was lost on me that we would now be taking part in the Champions League next season and will also face either Internazionale of Paris Saint Germain in the UEFA Super Cup in August.  It will need a summer of hard work for Fabio Paratici if he re-joins Tottenham to recruit players of quality to add to the squad.  It means more income from the league format and any further matches we might have, plus the chance to test our side against the top clubs in Europe.

Maguire showed that he is a bad loser when Romero went to shake his hand and he refused, then started trying to kick off with Cristian.  Not only a bad loser, but a bad player, as his performance showed how ordinary he is.  Few United players were actually worthy of a mention, with the stats backing that up, with Spurs having a greater xG than United with so little possession and so few shots on goal.  Those that did find the target were defended with every sinew to keep Spurs ahead.

Romero and Vicario were totally focused on the night and they were instrumental to the victory, although there wasn’t a player who didn’t play their part.  Bissouma displayed great discipline, Bentancur kept the ball ticking over and covered when his fellow midfielders went forward.  Udogie proved a problem for United going forward and in the second half showed good defensive nous, with the same going for Pape Matar Sarr.  Johnson kept making the runs, scoring the goal and also got back to defend when required, with Richi running himself into the ground, as did Dominic.  The back four were so solid.  Romero snuffing out any threat from Maguire and Hojlund, Micky doing Micky things and performing acrobatics to clear that header off the line with Pedro bombing up and down the line, but holding back more than usual.  And behind them, Guglielmo Vicario, called upon when needed to make some fine saves and only really making one mistake that led to the Hojlund header.  The subs all came on and did their bit to protect the lead and they were all Spurs heroes, every one.

It was a night that those of us there and those watching at home, in the pub or at the THS will never forget.  And hopefully, it will be the first of many in the near future, as the majority of this side could be together for quite a few years now that they have the winning feeling and the mentality that they can put in performances like this.

Alex Ferguson used to say “It’s only Spurs lads.”  Well, he was right tonight.  It was only Spurs and United couldn’t beat us.  It was only Spurs who were going to lift the trophy.  After so many times when things have gone against us, this was Our Day.

• This became the final that was contested between the two lowest league placed teams in the history of European competitions.
• Tottenham had only 27.7% possession, had only three shots at goal and completed just 115 passes – all the the lowest recorded of any team to play in a major European final since 2009-2010.
• Cristian Romero was named UEFA Europa League Final Man of the Match and Player of the Tournament.
• This was Ange Postecoglou’s 100th match as Head Coach of Tottenham Hotspur.
• Tottenham Hotspur beat Manchester United for the fourth time this season, only the second side to do so in one season, with Everton in 1985-86 being the other.
• At 17 years and 283 days old, Mikey Moore became the youngest player ever to win the Europa League.