Manchester United complete their trophy cabinet by beating Ajax to lift the Europa League trophy

An emotional night in Stockholm finished with Man United securing a convincing 0-2 win over a talented young Ajax side. The victory assures United qualification for next season’s Champions League.

Before last night’s final, Manchester United had won every competition they had competed in at least once; apart from the Europa League. This space in their trophy cabinet was filled after a convincing 0-2 win against Ajax, which qualifies them for next season’s Champions League. Over the course of the domestic season, Man United and their manager José Mourinho faced much criticism after only finishing in 6th place, given the huge sums spent on players last summer. However, the team overcame this criticism to finish the season with three trophies.

The Europa League win also makes Mourinho the first manager to win the Champions League and Europa League twice respectively, following previous victories in European finals as manager of FC Porto and Inter Milan. This latest triumph marked the Portuguese manager’s 12th win in 14 major finals.

A talented Ajax team provided strong opposition to United and showed that the eleven players who lined-up for the Dutch side, all aged under 23, have extremely promising careers ahead of them. It is certain that this will not be last time we see this Ajax side contest a major European final. Crucial tackles from defenders such as Matthijs De Ligt, made the final a tense, close match.

However, a series of Ajax mistakes just before the 20-minute mark allowed United to open the scoring. After a terrible throw-in from Jaïro Riedewald the ball was allowed to find it’s way to Marouane Fellaini, who set-up Paul Pogba, left in comfortable space by the Dutch side’s captain, Davy Klaassen. Pogba’s curling finish smashed into the roof of the net with the assistance of a fortuitous deflection from Ajax’s Davinson Sánchez. This deflection was particularly unfortunate for the Colombian defender, as he otherwise played an excellent game. Hopefully the Amsterdam-based team will be able to learn from this experience and avoid such errors in future finals.

Nonetheless, United fully seized the opportunity to capitalize on their opponent’s mistakes and added a second goal as the second-half began. A fantastic bicycle-kick from Henrikh Mhkitaryan, following Ajax’s failure to clear a corner, put the victory beyond doubt for Manchester United.

Hopefully United’s victory can bring some joy to Manchester, as the City continues to heal following the heinous terrorist attack it fell victim to on Monday night. The team dedicated their victory to the City and celebrated their Europa League triumph wildly with their travelling supporters. Highlights of these celebrations included Zlatan Ibrahimović handing his phone to a member of the press corps, who used the phone to take selfies of the Swedish star celebrating with supporters.