The 2019 UEFA Europa League Final will be played on Wednesday, May 29 between English Premier League rivals Chelsea and Arsenal from Olympic Stadium in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Both clubs are playing in their second Europa League final, with Chelsea having won the competition in 2013 and Arsenal finishing as runner-up in 2000.
The London rivals in the all-English final are very familiar with each other, having met twice already this season in Premier League play. Chelsea won 3-2 at Stamford Bridge, then Arsenal won 2-0 at Emirates Stadium.
Chelsea won the only Europa League final it has ever reached, a 2-1 victory over Benfica in 2013, while Arsenal fell on penalties to Galatasaray in its only UEFA Cup final in 2000.
Italian manager Maurizio Sarri is in his first season with the Blues after spending three seasons in charge of Napoli, where his side played in the Europa League twice and Champions League once but never made it past the first knockout round in either competition.
His counterpart on the touchline in Baku will be Unai Emery, who has considerable experience around Europe, having managed Valencia, Spartak Moscow, Sevilla and PSG before his current role at Arsenal. Emery’s greatest European success came with Sevilla, where he led the Spanish club to a Europa League three-peat from 2014-2016.
On the injury front, Chelsea has some good and bad news going into the final. First the bad: midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek, who has 4 Europa League goals, will miss the final with a left Achilles injury. On the good side: midfielder N’Golo Kante has returned to training ahead of the final after missing time with a hamstring strain.
For Arsenal, the biggest absence will not be injury related. Armenian midfielder Henrik Mkhitaryan will not travel to Baku for safety reasons due to a longstanding conflict between his native Armenia and Azerbaijan that dates back to 1917.
The referee for the 2019 Europa League Final is 45-year-old Italian Gianluca Rocchi. It will be Rocchi’s first time in charge of a Europa League final. He was the fourth official in the 2010 and 2017 Europa League Finals and was the head referee of the 2017 UEFA Super Cup.
Rocchi has refereed six UEFA Champions League matches this season.
What does the winning team receive?
Aside from the pride and joy of winning the competition, the biggest prize the Europa League champion receives is an automatic berth into the group stage of next season’s UEFA Champions League.
Given its fifth-place finish in the English Premier League, this award is especially significant to Arsenal because it’s the Gunners last hope of playing Champions League football in 2019-20.
Chelsea finished third in the EPL, guaranteeing a spot in the Group Stage, so the Blues squad will be playing for a trophy and the $50million payout the winning club receives from UEFA.
