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The third all-English Europa League final between Manchester United and Tottenham has been set up.


With a final matchup scheduled for May 21 in Bilbao between Manchester United and Tottenham, the Europa League trophy will be traveling to England this season.

Two English teams will compete for the trophy in the competition, which was formerly known as the UEFA Cup, for the third time.

Here, the PA news agency examines the two prior occasions when both finalists were from the country.

Tottenham 3, Wolves 2, overall, 1972

The teams who had placed fourth and third in the First Division the previous season faced off over two legs in the first-ever UEFA Cup final, which turned out to be a close match.

With World Cup champion Martin Peters, Pat Jennings, Joe Kinnear, Alan Mullery, Mike England, Martin Chivers, and Alan Gilzean starting both games, Spurs manager Bill Nicholson had an all-star team at his disposal.


In a match officiated by Tofiq Bahramov of Azerbaijan, the "Russian linesman" who gave England their contentious third goal in the 1966 World Cup final, Jim McCalliog responded to England striker Chivers' header and subsequent piledriver in the second half, giving the north London club a valuable 2-1 lead going into their trip to Molineux on May 3.

Although Dave Wagstaffe's equalizer gave the visitors a 1-1 draw that evening, captain Mullery's header from a Peters free-kick at White Hart Lane finally sealed the win.

Arsenal 1, Chelsea 4, 2018

Maurizio Sarri's Chelsea and Unai Emery's Arsenal faced up for European glory in Baku's Olympic Stadium, where the Europa League was already well-established.

Although Emery had an incredible record going into Azerbaijan—he had won the title three times in a row while he was at Sevilla and would later win it again with Villarreal—Eden Hazard, the Belgian sensation from Chelsea, had the biggest impact on the game.


Alex Iwobi pulled one back between the Belgium international's 65th-minute penalty and his second goal, but Hazard scored his team's third and fourth goals in his final appearance before departing for Real Madrid after Olivier Giroud and Pedro had placed them ahead 2-0.

Italian Sarri left Chelsea in a matter of weeks to take over at Juventus, while the current manager of Aston Villa, Emery, was fired by the Gunners in November of the same year. The team has yet to win a European title since its Cup Winners' Cup victory in 1994.

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