After a pulsating 90 minutes of clinical football, Atlético Madrid emerged victors over Athletic Bilbao in the Europa League final at Bucharest which was an all Spanish affair. Football finals are sometimes notorious for their lack of competitive football but this was a match like no other. The first goal came in the 7th minute and it set up the momentum of the game with Athleic Madrid controlling the game.
The Radamel Falcao goal was a superb beauty as he curled it it from the edge of the Bilbao box. The Bilbao players seemed shell shocked henceforth and they were completely overrun by their more illustrious counterparts for most of the first half. Athletic Bilbao begun to fight back towards the end of the first half but were again dealt a blow by the brilliant Falcao who sent two defenders the wrong way after collecting a cross in the 6 yard box slotted his second of the game in the 34th minute after a brilliant display of trickery and composure.If not to make things worse for Athletic Bilbao,they had several close chances that were excellently saved by the inform Athletic Madrid keeper Thibaut Courtois.
The second half saw Athletic Bilbao start off fiery with Muniain missing out on an early chance to pull one back soon after the game had started. In a very entertaining 2nd half both teams came close to scoring but it was Athletic Madrid's tactical drilling that shone through as they managed to disorganize their opponents play several times and ward off their ever increasing attacks. After several failed attempts by Bilbao, a counter attack allowed Diego to score a well placed shot in the 85th minute that settled the game. Athletic Bilbao fought a bit but final score was 3-0 and Athletico Madrid were crowned Europa League champions .
This was a brilliant final that will go down as one of the favorites in the history of the competition.
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