{"id":120907,"date":"2025-05-21T22:14:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T22:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/120907\/"},"modified":"2025-05-21T22:14:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T22:14:13","slug":"party-atmosphere-turns-to-despair-with-manchester-united-fans-left-gutted-at-shocking-europa-league-final-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/120907\/","title":{"rendered":"Party atmosphere turns to despair with Manchester United fans left gutted at ‘shocking’ Europa League final loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘We could have won it’United fans watch on inside the AO Arena as Brennan Johnson puts Spurs in front(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

Devastated Manchester United <\/a>fans have branded their Europa League final<\/a> loss to Tottenham an ‘absolute shocker.’<\/p>\n

There was a carnival atmosphere in the city centre throughout the day as thousands of fans gathered ahead of the showpiece match against Spurs in Bilbao’s San Mames Stadium.<\/p>\n

But, just before half-time, the scenes of celebration turned into scenes of despair when Brennan Johnson flicked home what proved to the winning goal.<\/p>\n

United were given an official allocation of around 15,000 tickets for the match, but thousands more were said to have made the trip to northern Spain, with reports saying 80,000 fans of both clubs descended on Bilbao.<\/p>\n

For those unable to travel, a huge screening was being held inside the AO Arena, with more than 16,000 fans snapping up tickets.<\/p>\n

Fans were left gutted(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

Ahead of kick-off, fans gathered in the pubs in and around Shambles Square.<\/p>\n

Red smoke bombs were let off with United chants ringing out. Many then made their way inside the arena, whilst others packed into pubs and bars to watch the match.<\/p>\n

Inside the arena, the fans were in good voice. But there was a stunned silence when Johnson’s 42nd minute effort went in off Luke Shaw.<\/p>\n

Fans react as United went close to equalising(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

There were opportunities for United to equalise, but they couldn’t take them, and Spurs clung on to win their first piece of silverware in 17 years, a place in next season’s Champions League<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Whilst the Reds passed up the chance to rescue success from a disappointing league campaign.<\/p>\n

Following the final whistle, the arena emptied in a matter of minutes as gutted supporters trudged their way out into the night.<\/p>\n

The fans had been in good voice(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

Several shared their devastation.<\/p>\n

Colin Cywinski, from Bolton, said: \u201cAbsolute shocker. We could have won it. There were loads of chances. I\u2019m not sure for the future, hopefully we can get somewhere good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brandon Coker: \u201cI\u2019m sad. We tried things the best we could. It\u2019s the owners.<\/p>\n

There was a carnival atmosphere in the city centre before kick-off(Image: Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tried our very best. We couldn\u2019t have done much better with the resources that we\u2019ve got. That\u2019s the best we could have done. Spurs deserved to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noah Prince, from Stoke, said: \u201cI was expecting to win. Coming out of that, it\u2019s like they didn\u2019t want to win the game. The second half we were the better team, but substitutions came too late.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Summer Aspin said: \u201cThere\u2019s always hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

United have one Premier League<\/a> remaining, against Aston Villa at Old Trafford<\/a> on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘We could have won it’United fans watch on inside the AO Arena as Brennan Johnson puts Spurs in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,1811,4884,2465,423,42953,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-120907","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-europa-league","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-manchester","13":"tag-manchester-united-fc","14":"tag-manchester-united-fc-in-the-europa-league-final","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114548131166098828","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}