IFFHS CONTINENTAL NEWS - UEFA CONFERENCE LEAGUE FINAL
Picture : Jarrod Bowen became the first Englishman to score the winning goal in a major European final since Alan Smith in 1994 (Arsenal, Cup Winners’ Cup final vs Parma).
Statistics on Conference League final West Ham vs Fiorentina 2-1
*West Ham United have won their 2nd major European trophy, after Cup Winners’ Cup in 1965.
*West Ham’s previous appearance in a major European final was in 1976 (Cup Winners' Cup, lost to Anderlecht), so a gap between their two consecutive finals is 47 years.
Only one club have had a longer such gap: Manchester City (51 years, between 1970 Cup Winners' Cup and 2021 Champions League).
*Fiorentina became the 1st club to appear in the finals of each of all 4 major European competitions: Champions Cup (1957), UEFA Cup (1990),
Cup Winners' Cup (1961, 1962), Conference League (2023).
They have won only 1 of their 5 European finals (1961).
*West Ham finished 14th in the Premier League this season; no other winners of a major European competition in the history took such a low position in the national league in the season of their European triumph.
*West Ham United were unbeaten in their European season (14 wins and 1 draw in 15 Conference League game, including qualifiers): the longest unbeaten series for English teams in Europe since Chelsea in 2018-2019 (16 games).
*In this season, West Ham have won more games in Conference League (14) than in Premier League (11); this is the first time in the history when an English side has won more games in Europe than in the home league in the same season.
*It was 3rd case in the history of European finals of scoring the winning goal on 90th minute; all 3 feats were made by English teams (also Manchester United vs Bayern Munich in 1999 Champions League and Chelsea vs Benfica in 2013 Europa League).
*West Ham’s coach David Moyes has finally won the first major trophy in his long career (it was his 1,097th match as a coach).