UEFA Europa League by numbers

UEFA.com brings you the key numbers from this season's UEFA Europa League which ended in more glory for the 2010 champions Club Atlético de Madrid, and their talismanic Colombian striker in particular.

29
Falcao's double in Bucharest took him to 29 goals in 29 UEFA Europa League games and made him the competition's top scorer for the second season running. While his 12 strikes this term did not match his unprecedented 17 in 2010/11, they have taken him to within two of Henrik Larsson's all-time tally for the UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League – and at the age 26, he has plenty of time to surpass the Swede.

9
The Atlético-Athletic Club showdown at the National Arena was the ninth UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League final to be contested by teams from the same country and the second in succession following FC Porto's 1-0 defeat of SC Braga in Dublin 12 months ago. It was also the second all-Spanish affair, Sevilla FC beating RCD Espanyol on penalties in Glasgow in 2007.

4
Atlético's Diego Simeone is only the fourth non-European coach to have won a major UEFA club competition – and the fourth Argentinian. Luis Carniglia led Real Madrid CF to victory in the 1958 and 1959 European Champion Clubs' Cup finals, while Helenio Herrera won the same competition with FC Internazionale Milano in 1964 and 1965. Alfredo Di Stéfano – who represented Spain as well as Argentina at international level – won the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup with Valencia CF in 1980.

3
Simeone also joined another exclusive club of those to have won the UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League as coach and player. Dino Zoff clinched the 1976/77 edition as a goalkeeper with Juventus – beating Athletic in the final – and the 1989/90 competition as coach of the same club. Huub Stevens lifted the trophy in 1978 as a defender with PSV Eindhoven and then led FC Schalke 04 to success in 1997.

15
Five players featured in all 15 matches for their clubs this season, including the irrepressible Falcao. His club-mate Adrián López also featured in all 15 of Atlético's games, while Andoni Iraola, Iker Muniain and Markel Susaeta did likewise for runners-up Athletic.

0
Atlético's starting lineup in the final featured none of the players who had lifted the trophy with a 2-1 win against Fulham FC in Hamburg just two years before, although Álvaro Domínguez and Eduardo Salvio came on as substitutes.

19
Curiously, the two fastest goals in this season's competition were both timed at 19 seconds and came in the round of 32 – Taison's strike for FC Metalist Kharkiv at FC Salzburg in the first leg and Sergio Agüero's goal in Manchester City FC's second-leg defeat of Porto.

3
Wins against FC Zürich (2-0), S.S. Lazio (2-1) and FC Vaslui (2-0) made Sporting Clube de Portugal the first-ever side to qualify from the group stage of a UEFA competition after just three games.

67,328
Manchester United FC's first foray into the UEFA Europa League – they last played in the UEFA Cup in 1995/96 – brought a new record crowd for the competition for their home debut against AFC Ajax in the round of 32. The majority of fans at Old Trafford endured a tense evening as the Dutch side ran out 2-1 winners, although United edged through thanks to their 2-0 victory in Amsterdam the previous week.