PARIS: For Manchester United or Tottenham Hotspur, a miserable campaign will end in Europa League glory.

Despite both teams languishing in the bottom half of the Premier League, the Champions League is now just one game away.

That’s the reward on offer after the two troubled English clubs advanced to the final of Europe’s second-tier competition on Thursday.

United beat Athletic Bilbao 4-1 in the semi-final second leg at Old Trafford and won 7-1 on aggregate. Tottenham won 2-0 away at Bodø/Glimt to seal a 5-1 aggregate victory.

It sets up an all-English Europa League final — for the second time in six years after Chelsea beat Arsenal to lift the trophy in 2019 — on May 21 at San Mames Stadium in Bilbao, the home ground of Athletic.

“If we don’t win the final, it means nothing for us,” United coach Ruben Amorim said. “It’s hard to describe what it’s like to be manager of this club. You want to give them [the fans] something, because we’ve been so disappointing in the Premier League.

“The money [in the Champions League] is not the most important, even the title. To win a title as a coach is that feeling. So, it’s not just playing Champions League next year. Is that feeling too that we can change things.”

Amorim’s men came into Thursday’s second leg at Old Trafford with a comfortable 3-0 cushion. But the scoreline gives a misleading impression of the match as the nervy home side struggled to gain a foothold after falling behind to a superb Mikel Jauregizar strike in the first half.

A triple substitution shortly after the hour mark changed the game, with substitute Mason Mount scoring two eye-catching goals and Amad Diallo creating havoc on the right. Casemiro and Rasmus Hojlund scored the other goals as the nerves disappeared at Old Trafford, giving way to a raucous party atmosphere.

United are heading for their worst finish in the English top-flight since they were relegated in 1974, though they cannot go down this season.

But it has been a radically different story in Europe, where they are the only team unbeaten in the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League.

The fact that United are pinning all their hopes on Europe’s second-tier club competition is a sign of how far they have fallen since they were regularly competing at the sharp end of the Champions League.

They reached four Champions League finals under former manager Alex Ferguson, winning two of them.

Ex-Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, now FIFA’s head of global football development, believes it is not appropriate that the Europa League winners qualify for the Champions League.

This is especially because five English teams will qualify for Europe’s top club competition through the Premier League.

Rival teams will balk at the presence of United or Tottenham in next season’s Champions Lea­gue after their dire league form.

Both teams are guaranteed to finish outside of the European qualification places in the Premier League, with United currently in 15th and Spurs in 16th.

But the rules are set and both clubs have the chance to finish on a high.

“It’s going to upset a lot of people isn’t it! The debate’s now raging, the latest one is that neither of us will be able to get a trophy if we win, they’re just going to take a team photo because we’re not worthy,” Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou said after his side’s composed victory in the Aspmyra Stadium.

“I mean, who cares if we’re struggling in the league? Why is that important? If it’s so easy to get to a final, then why doesn’t everyone who finishes in the top three do it?

“We understand our league form hasn’t been great. We understand the struggles we’ve had. A lot of them are because of the situation we’ve been in. But how does that diminish the achievement of getting to a final? “I couldn’t care less who’s struggling and who’s not. I think both us and United have earned the right to be there.”

STARK CONTRAST

Tottenham’s form in Europe this season has been in stark contrast to their Premier League campaign in which they have lost 19 times in 35 matches and are in danger of their worst finish since they were relegated in 1976-77. In the Europa League they have won nine of their 14 matches, drawn three and lost just two.

They produced a gritty display to beat Bodø/Glimt inside the Arctic Circle, with the win keeping alive the under-fire Australian’s bid to end their 17-year trophy drought.

Having won the first leg 3-1 last week, Postecoglou would have been hammered by his growing army of doubters if Tottenham had blown their chance to reach the final.

But second-half goals from Dominic Solanke and Pedro Porro ensured the much-maligned manager still has a chance to fulfil his boast that he always wins a trophy in his second season.

Whether that will be enough to spare Postecoglou from the axe is another matter. The 59-year-old has admitted the general perception outside Tottenham is he faces the sack regardless of the Europa League run because their domestic form has been so bad.

Amorim has said winning the Europa League won’t save United’s season from being a failure. But the combative Postecoglou came out fighting when that was put to him.

“What do I care what Manchester United think? Why is that relevant to me? Ask the Manchester United manager why he said that. Me, I’ve said all along this is important,” Postecoglou said.

“You know better than me, you follow this club more than I have. What do you think a trophy would do for this club? The question answers itself. It doesn’t need me.

“You know what’s happening right now is people are fearing that it actually might happen. Because it might happen let’s see how we can tear it down somehow and diminish it somehow by saying it’s been a poor season and we don’t deserve this or we don’t deserve that.”

Tottenham have beaten United three times this season, twice in the Premier League and once in the League Cup, but Amorim is not unduly perturbed.

“Every game has its history. So, we lost the three last games, we can win this one,” said the former Sporting Lisbon boss. “So, if you look at the odds, we are closer to win than to lose. Both teams are going to play like all or nothing in this kind of game. It’s quite similar.

“I know that Ange has been there for one more year. It is different, the context, but we are struggling, both of us. So, I don’t know what is going to happen.”

Spurs are aiming to win their first European trophy since the 1984 UEFA Cup and their first silverware in any competition since the League Cup in 2008.

Tottenham’s last four finals have all ended in defeat, most notably the 2019 Champions League showpiece against Liverpool, while they were also beaten in the 2009, 2015 and 2021 League Cup finals.

Postecoglou might not be certain where his future lies, but he is determined to bring the trophy back from Bilbao.

“This is why we do what we do as much as anything else. You understand the context of what this football club has been trying to achieve for quite a while and managers and players come and go, but the one constant is the supporters,” he said.

“We’ve given them some hope, something to dream about. We’ve got an exciting trip coming up and a great experience and who knows? Hopefully we can do something special.”

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2025