The quality of the 2024-25 Europa League final was befitting of a clash between the 16th-placed and 17th-placed teams in the Premier League table, and any neutrals tuning in hoping for an extraordinary, end-to-end affair were quickly handed a harsh dose of reality.
The head-to-head between Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United in Bilbao marked the first-ever UEFA club competition final between two sides to finish in the bottom 10 of their respective divisions, and two sides that should have been thankful that Leicester City, Ipswich Town and Southampton were as pitiful as they were.
Right from the get-go, the magnitude of the occasion had clearly set in for both sets of players, both of whom were fighting for glory for entirely different reasons; Spurs to finally snap the torturous trophy drought and Man United to steer further clear of financial oblivion.
It was only right for a game of such mediocre attacking quality to be settled by a goal of mediocre quality, as Brennan Johnson and Luke Shaw combined to somehow scramble the ball into the side of the Man United net at the end of the first half.
In strikingly similar fashion to the second leg of their quarter-final triumph over Eintracht Frankfurt, Tottenham abandoned their once unwavering principles after going a goal ahead, so much so that they conquered the continent's secondary tournament with some of the worst statistics on record.
Tottenham win Europa League with worst final statistics in recorded history
© Imago
As the Lilywhites weathered a Man United onslaught - if you can call it that - they mustered a paltry three shots all night, completed just 115 passes between them and had just 27.7% of the ball at the San Mames Stadium.
Since Opta began gathering the data in 2009-10, the metrics listed above are all the lowest for any team - winner or loser - in a major European final, but those statistics matter little when the scoreline in the top left-hand corner reads 1-0.
Arguably the second-most important statistic of the evening, the self-professed "serial winner" Ange Postecoglou fulfilled his second-season trophy prophecy, meaning that the Australian has indeed won a major honour in his second full campaign at every club he has managed.
While Postecoglou witnessed Micky van de Ven and Guglielmo Vicario produce goal-line heroics in the second half, Man United's otherwise toothless display saw Tottenham end the game with a higher Expected Goals total than the Red Devils, 1.01 to 0.85.
Tottenham will now prepare to mix it with the big boys of the Champions League once again, but whether Postecoglou will be leading Spurs back into Europe's premier tournament is the £1m question.
Postecoglou confirms no talks over Tottenham future
© Imago
The ex-Celtic treble winner is still contracted to the Lilywhites until 2027, and speaking to journalists post-match, he confirmed that no talks over his future had taken place.
"No, no planned meetings. I haven't had any discussions, no one has spoken to me about anything," Postecoglou said in his press conference, as quoted by football.london. "Maybe they felt like they don't need to or they were waiting for this game.
"What I do know is, I'll go back to my hotel room, get my family and friends together, open up a nice bottle of scotch, have a couple of quiet ones, get ready for a massive parade on Friday, play Brighton on Sunday - really important our last home game and we want to finish strong - and then Monday I'll go on holiday with my beautiful family because I deserve it."
Postecoglou is right, he does deserve it. But if you are asking 100 Spurs fans whether he deserves a third year in the job, the jury may still be out, as continental success came at the price of a historically poor domestic season.
However, when the final whistle blows on the campaign, Tottenham ought to be remembered as the team that won the Europa League rather than the team that - potentially - finished 17th in the Premier League.
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Ben Knapton
