For the first time ever, English teams have secured spots in the finals of all three major European competitions in a single season.
Arsenal booked their place in the Champions League final with a 2-1 aggregate victory over Atletico Madrid on Tuesday. Later in the week, Aston Villa and Crystal Palace followed suit in the Europa League and Conference League, respectively.
Unai Emery’s Villa side overturned a 1-0 first-leg deficit to thrash Nottingham Forest 4-1 on aggregate on Thursday, setting up a Europa League final clash with Bundesliga side Freiburg in Istanbul on 20 May.
Simultaneously, Crystal Palace built on their 3-1 first-leg win against Shakhtar Donetsk with a 2-1 victory at Selhurst Park in the second leg. They will face Rayo Vallecano in the Conference League final on 27 May, a competition introduced five years ago as European football’s third tier, following the end of the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1999.
This near-miss happened last season, when Chelsea won the Conference League and Tottenham beat Manchester United in the Europa League final. However, Arsenal were the last English team left in the Champions League, falling to eventual winners Paris Saint-Germain in the semi-finals.
The Premier League has previously placed at least three teams across the Champions League and Europa League finals. In 2021, Kai Havertz scored the only goal as Chelsea defeated Manchester City in an all-English Champions League final, while Manchester United lost in the Europa League final. In 2019, Liverpool beat Tottenham in the Champions League final, and Chelsea defeated Arsenal in the Europa League final in Baku.
In contrast, 2006 saw both English finalists lose—Arsenal to Barcelona in the Champions League and Middlesbrough thrashed 4-0 by Sevilla in the UEFA Cup. The last season before this one in which English clubs won two of the three available competitions was 1984, when Liverpool claimed the European Cup and Tottenham won the UEFA Cup. Liverpool also won the European Cup in 1981, while Bobby Robson’s Ipswich Town took the UEFA Cup that same year.
Italy has featured clubs in all available finals several times, most recently in 2023, though they lost all three—Inter in the Champions League, Roma in the Europa League, and Fiorentina in the Conference League. Serie A won two out of three finals in 1993-94 (AC Milan in the Champions League, Inter in the UEFA Cup), and repeated that feat in 1992-93 and 1988-89. The peak came in 1989-90, when Italian clubs swept all three trophies: Milan as European champions, Juventus beating Fiorentina in the UEFA Cup, and Sampdoria winning the Cup Winners’ Cup.
Spanish clubs also reached three finals in 1985-86, with Real Madrid winning the UEFA Cup, Barcelona losing in the European Cup final, and Atletico Madrid finishing runners-up in the Cup Winners’ Cup.
