SAN FRANCISCO, May 17, (THEWILL) – Atletico Madrid claimed their third Europa League triumph in nine years with a 3-0 victory over Marseille as Antoine Griezmann scored twice in Wednesday’s final in Lyon.
Griezmann, brought up in Macon, just 70 kilometres from Lyon, scored once in each half, his lethal finishes coming either side of Marseille losing Dimitri Payet to injury, the French team’s captain coming off in tears.
Griezmann now has 29 goals for the season, although it was Gabi’s late strike that put the seal on the victory and ended Marseille’s hopes of becoming the first French team to win a European trophy for 22 years.
“This is a reward for me after I left home aged 14, for all the work I have put in, the suffering,” Griezmann, who has spent his whole career in Spain but had only previously won one Spanish Super Cup, told beIN Sports.
“There has been joy and sadness, but I am so happy and I hope to be able to live moments like this again.”
Marseille had been desperate to win the second European trophy in their history, on French soil, 25 years after beating AC Milan in the inaugural Champions League final in Munich.
But it was a flat night for their huge support, who threatened to ruin the occasion by constantly lighting flares and setting off firecrackers at one end of the stadium, with some even being thrown onto the pitch towards the end.
The game carried on regardless, with Rudi Garcia’s side well beaten by Diego Simeone’s Atletico.
Their triumph comes after their agonising defeats to city rivals Real Madrid in the Champions League finals of 2014 and 2016. They had previously won the Europa League in 2010 and again in 2012, the latter coming just six months after Simeone’s appointment.
Having fallen into this competition by virtue of a shock group-stage exit from the Champions League, Atletico were the favourites against a Marseille side whose continental campaign had begun in the third qualifying round last July.
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