Could Manchester United or Tottenham become the lowest-placed team ever to win a European trophy?

Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur will contest the Europa League final on May 21, with the winner — alongside picking up a coveted piece of silverware — qualifying for next season’s Champions League and all the financial rewards that come with it.

This has happened despite both teams enduring miserable seasons in the Premier League, racking up unwanted records and winless runs unbefitting of European finalists.

As things stand, Manchester United are 15th and Tottenham are one place below in 16th. Neither team can come higher than 12th and the possibility of finishing just one spot clear of relegation in 17th remains alive for both sides.

The rule change brought in at the start of this campaign which meant no clubs from the Champions League dropped into the Europa League has certainly played a big part in two such teams reaching the final. However, as we shall see, this is still an unusual situation and the victor in the showpiece in Bilbao will join a select group of clubs to have won continental silverware despite having historically poor domestic seasons.

Here, The Athletic talks you through the five lowest-placed league teams to have won a major European trophy.

West Ham United in 2022-23: Finished 14th in the Premier League and won the Europa Conference League

West Ham have the dubious honour of being the lowest-placed team to ever win a major European trophy.

David Moyes’ side triumphed in the second edition of the Europa Conference League (‘Europa’ was dropped from the competition’s name at the start of this season) in 2022-23, despite coming a lowly 14th in the Premier League.

The London club won 14 of their 15 matches in the continental competition and sealed the trophy following a dramatic 2-1 victory over Italian club Fiorentina in the final in Prague, with Jarrod Bowen scoring a 90th-minute winner.

In contrast, they won just 11 of their 38 Premier League matches in 2022-23 — finishing only six points clear of the relegation zone. Their longest winning streak in the league was two games (achieved once) but in the Europa Conference League it was 10 matches.

Moyes’ team won just three away games in the top flight, a figure that they had reached by October 6 in the Europa Conference League. A further juxtaposition was in their overall goal difference in both competitions; it was 26 in the Europa Conference League and -13 in the Premier League.

Nevertheless, their triumph in the Czech capital meant they qualified for the following season’s Europa League. In contrast, Aston Villa, who finished seventh in the Premier League with 21 more points than West Ham, went into the play-off round of the Europa Conference League — UEFA’s tertiary competition.

Should Manchester United or Tottenham finish in their current league positions, then whoever wins the final will replace West Ham as the lowest-placed league team to win a major European trophy.

Inter in 1993-94: Finished 13th in Serie A and won the UEFA Cup

Inter’s 13th-placed finish in Serie A in 1993-94 is the worst in their history and the second-lowest a team has finished domestically while winning a major European trophy.

A topsy-turvy first half of the season resulted in Osvaldo Bagnoli being dismissed as the Italian club’s manager in early February. Inter were sixth in the table at the time of his departure.

Bagnoli was replaced by Gianpiero Marini, who as a player made more than 350 appearances for the club and won the World Cup with Italy in 1982. The new boss oversaw Inter’s win over German club Borussia Dortmund in the UEFA Cup quarter-finals, but the two-legged victory coincided with a collapse in league form that saw Marini’s side lose four Serie A games in a row from March 13 to April 2.

They also lost the first leg of their UEFA Cup semi-final in this period, going down 3-2 to fellow Italian side Cagliari in Sardinia on March 30.

Inter recovered from this slump to beat Cagliari 3-0 in the second leg on April 12 for a 5-3 aggregate victory, with Dennis Bergkamp, Nicola Berti and Wim Jonk scoring the goals at San Siro that sealed Inter’s place in the final.

Bergkamp’s Inter also beat Ian Crook’s Norwich City on the way to winning the UEFA Cup (Shaun Botterill/ALLSPORT/Getty Images)

The triumph was tempered by the fact that the club had been sucked into a relegation battle in what was a remarkably tight Serie A season.

They got away with it, though. Despite failing to win any of their final three league games, Inter stayed up… by one point. Marini’s side finished 13th out of 18 teams and a sign of how close the season was is that Piacenza, who came 15th and were relegated, were just six points off sixth-placed Napoli who qualified for the UEFA Cup (though it was two points for a win at the time).

The two-legged UEFA Cup final, which came either side of Inter’s last Serie A game, was against Austria Salzburg (now Red Bull Salzburg). The Italian club won 2-0 on aggregate (0-1 and 1-0) thanks to goals from Berti and Jonk and in doing so secured the club’s fourth major European trophy after their European Cup triumphs in 1964 and 1965 and their UEFA Cup victory in 1991.

Arsenal in 1969-70: Finished 12th in the First Division and won the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup

Since their 12th-place finish in the English top flight in 1969-70, Arsenal have only registered a worse league position twice — 16th in 1974-75 and 17th in 1975-76.

That 1969-70 campaign did, however, see the London club win their first major European trophy. With Bertie Mee — the man second only to Arsene Wenger for the most games as Arsenal manager — in charge, they put the disappointment of third-round exits in both the FA Cup and League Cup behind them to reach the final of the penultimate edition of the Inter-Cites Fairs Cup; defeating Glentoran (Northern Ireland), Sporting CP (Portugal), Rouen (France), Dinamo Bacau (Romania) and Ajax (Netherlands) to get there.

A 10-game winless run in the league from mid-December to late February threatened to derail Arsenal’s season, but a narrow 1-0 aggregate victory over Rouen in the third round of the Fairs Cup (the second leg was on January 13) provided some much-needed mid-winter confidence.

Bob Wilson, Peter Simpson and Frank McLintock savour Arsenal’s Fairs Cup victory (Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Mee’s team proceeded to thrash Dinamo Bacau 9-1 over two legs in the quarter-finals before defeating an Ajax team containing a 22-year-old Johan Cruyff 3-1 on aggregate in the last four. The Dutch club would go on to win the European Cup (today’s Champions League) in each of the following three seasons.

The final, also played over two legs, was against Anderlecht in late April. The Belgian club won the first match at home 3-1, with Ray Kennedy scoring what would prove to be a vital 82nd-minute goal for Arsenal. Back at Highbury, goals from Eddie Kelly, John Radford and Jon Sammels secured a 3-0 win for the English club and a 4-3 victory on aggregate.

Schalke in 1996-97: Finished 12th in the Bundesliga and won the UEFA Cup

The lowest-placed German team to ever win a major European trophy, Schalke triumphed over Inter in the last two-legged UEFA Cup final in May 1997 to secure their only piece of continental silverware.

An unimpressive Bundesliga season saw the club from Gelsenkirchen collapse from fifth to 12th after winning just one of their last 12 matches, overall barely averaging a goal per game in the league and finishing with a goal difference of -5.

They were much more dependable in Europe, however, defeating Roda (Netherlands), Trabzonspor (Turkey), Club Brugge (Belgium) and both Valencia and Tenerife of Spain to set up the final with Inter.

Schalke’s Jens Lehmann and Mike Bustens sandwich Inter’s Youri Djorkaeff at San Siro (Ben Radford /Allsport/Getty images)

Both teams won 1-0 at home, with Belgian attacking midfielder Marc Wilmots scoring for Schalke and Ivan Zamorano finding the net in the 84th minute for Inter at San Siro in the second leg to force extra time — the first UEFA Cup final to need an additional 30 minutes since 1988.

Neither side could score a golden goal and Schalke won the penalty shootout 4-1, with Ingo Anderbrugge, Olaf Thon, Martin Max and Wilmots all converting for the German club.

Sevilla in 2022-23: Finished 12th in La Liga and won the Europa League

The lowest-placed Spanish side to ever triumph continentally, Sevilla handed Jose Mourinho his first defeat in a major European final when they beat Italian club Roma 4-1 on penalties following a bad-tempered 1-1 draw in Budapest in 2023.

After coming third in their Champions League group and dropping into the Europa League, Sevilla battled their way to the final of UEFA’s secondary competition by winning three of their four two-legged knockout ties by a single goal — including former Tottenham player Erik Lamela’s extra-time winner against Juventus in the semi-finals.

Sevilla’s players celebrate after winning a seventh Europa League (Ferenc Isza/AFP via Getty Images)

Sevilla failed to win any of their last four La Liga games of the season, all of which came after they had secured their place in the Europa League final. As a result, they dropped down to 12th in the Spanish top flight — at the time their lowest finish since coming 20th and being relegated in 1999-00.

However, they more than made up for that by winning the Europa League for a record-extending seventh time (with all of those from 2006 onwards) and qualifying for the following season’s Champions League.

(Top photo of Sevilla’s parade: Cristina Quicler/AFP via Getty Images)

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