Tottenham ended their 17-year wait for a trophy as Brennan Johnson’s first-half goal was enough to beat Manchester United in the Europa League final.
Victory means under-fire head coach Ange Postecoglou has fulfilled a promise to deliver silverware in his second season at Spurs.
Postecoglou, who said he would “never be a clown” in his pre-match address, brought smiles and unbridled joy to the faces of the 15,000 official, and many unofficial, Tottenham fans in Bilbao’s San Mames Stadium.
Victory may not save Postecoglou from a Spurs exit in the coming weeks. But the Australian will leave as a hero after joining Bill Nicholson and Keith Burkinshaw in winning a European trophy with the north London giants.
In addition to following the lead of Newcastle and Crystal Palace in making this a season of glory for clubs who rarely, if ever, win a trophy, Tottenham are also set to benefit from a £100m windfall after qualifying for next season’s Champions League.
As had to happen in a battle between the two lowest-placed teams ever to contest a European final, for the losers, there was no silver lining.
Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim will send his side into the final Premier League game of the season against Aston Villa on Sunday with huge questions over his ability to make them competitive following their worst season since the 1973-74 relegation campaign.
Amorim enjoys the backing of the ownership but his decision to pick Mason Mount ahead of Alejandro Garnacho in an attacking role did not work. And with skipper Bruno Fernandes unusually subdued, United lacked the guile to drag themselves back into the game once they had fallen behind.
They came close to an equaliser with a Rasmus Hojlund header, following Guglielmo Vicario’s error, that was acrobatically cleared off the line by Micky van de Ven midway through the second half.
Vicario then made a dramatic late save to keep out Luke Shaw’s header.
The goal was scruffy, with some debate over whether Johnson got the last touch – and was totally in keeping with the tepid domestic seasons of these two underperforming sides, but no-one at Spurs will care about that.
On a night of clear tension and nerves, evident from both sides from the first minutes, and afflicting even the most experienced performers, it was always likely to require a little bit of luck to claim victory.
When Pape Matar Sarr floated over his cross as the first-half ticked to its conclusion, Johnson got ahead of Shaw to get the first touch.
It wasn’t a particularly good touch and looked unlikely to trouble Onana. But once the ball hit Shaw at close quarters, the Manchester United goalkeeper was scrambling. Johnson lunged at the ball a second time. Whether he got there was debatable. But the damage was already done. Onana couldn’t keep it out.
Up to that point, Tottenham had not had a shot on target. They were not to have another. It didn’t matter a jot.
In his 100th game as Spurs boss, Postecoglou got his second season trophy, just as he did with South Melbourne and Brisbane Roar in Australia, Yokohama F Marinos in Japan and Celtic in Scotland. The first English club to win a European competition had become the latest to do so, beating a English opponent for the second time after overcoming Wolves in the 1972 Uefa Cup final.
Postecoglou also won the Asian Cup two years after becoming Australia boss – and the Scottish championship in both seasons with Celtic.
The seven minutes of stoppage time signalled brought hope for United that they could save themselves in a European final, just as they did so famously back in 1999.
But those days are long gone.
Even more recent heroes in the form of Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney, both present in Bilbao this week, can only lament what their old club has become.
Where there used to be invention and danger, now there is just poor decision making. It starts at the top of the club but was evident on the field deep in stoppage time when, with Bruno Fernandes on one side and Amad Diallo on the other, Leny Yoro decided he was the best option to shoot from 25 yards. It was off target.
Hojlund scooped a header over the bar. Amad was dangerous and in the dying embers of injury time, Vicario turned away a decent header from substitute Joshua Zirkzee.
But there was no great belief. Garnacho hooked the last chance into the side-netting.
United will have no European football next season for only the second time since English clubs were readmitted by Uefa in 1990. They will play in the Carabao Cup in August.
By BBC Sports
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