Top 10 UEFA Cup/Europa League finals of all time

The RheinEnergieStadion in Koln plays host to the 2019-20 Europa League final on Friday night as Sevilla take on Inter Milan.

A unique campaign which has lasted more than a year promises to come to a fascinating finale as the two most successful clubs in the competition's history go head to head - Sevilla gunning for a sixth title from six finals and Inter looking to get their hands on the trophy for a fourth time.

The Europa League often has to play an inevitable second-fiddle to its big brother the Champions League, but Friday's match has all the makings of a thrilling contest and the final of this competition has thrown up plenty of classic contests in the past.

Sevilla and Inter Milan have both been involved in some of those themselves and the neutrals will certainly be hoping for a repeat this time around.

With that in mind, here Sports Mole counts down the 10 greatest UEFA Cup/Europa League finals of all time.

10. Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk 2-3 Sevilla (2015)

Sevilla are already the most successful team in UEFA Cup/Europa League history as they aim to lift the trophy for a sixth time on Friday, and if we are treated to a repeat of their 2015 success then the neutrals will be well entertained.

The Spanish outfit were already the kings of the competition in the modern era and went into this final as holders against surprise package Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk - a Ukrainian club for whom this final came just four years before the entire club was dissolved.

Dnipro had already upset all the odds to make it to Warsaw and looked on course to do so again when former Blackburn Rovers striker Nikola Kalinic gave them the lead after only seven minutes.

However, two goals in the space of three minutes from Grzegorz Krychowiak and Carlos Bacca turned the game around before a ludicrously languid Ruslan Rotan free kick restored parity again at the end of a frenetic first half.

Bacca then won it for Sevilla with 17 minutes remaining, firing his side to a record fourth title and seeing them become the first team to benefit from the new rule rewarding the Europa League winners with Champions League qualification the following season.

Even so, 12 months later Sevilla were back in the final again to lift the trophy for a third successive time.

9. Feyenoord 3-2 Borussia Dortmund (2002)

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Almost 30 years on from their last European trophy, Feyenoord found themselves with a golden opportunity to end that drought when they reached the final in their own stadium in 2002.

The Dutch outfit made it there the hard way, recording one-goal aggregate victories over Freiburg, Rangers and Inter Milan in addition to a penalty shootout triumph over domestic rivals PSV Eindhoven, whereas Dortmund - Champions League winners only five years prior - had cruised through the knockout rounds in comparison.

Feyenoord boasted the tournament's top-scorer in their ranks, though, and Pierre van Hooijdonk added to his tally with a penalty and free kick in the space of seven minutes to send the hosts into the break with a two-goal lead.

Dortmund's hopes looked bleak having also seen club legend Jurgen Kohler sent off in his final game for conceding the penalty, but a spot kick of their own - won and converted by Marcio Amoroso - brought them back into the match two minutes after the interval.

Feyenoord's two-goal lead was restored by Jon Dahl Tomasson just three minutes after that, though, and the Dutch club held out despite Jan Koller pulling another back with a fine volley and Dortmund launching wave after wave of attacks in the final half an hour.

8. Lazio 0-3 Inter Milan (1998)

Italian football in the 1990s has a certain degree of inimitable nostalgia, and the 1998 UEFA Cup final between Serie A rivals Lazio and Inter Milan - the first one-legged final in the competition - was arguably the peak.

From the Brazilian Ronaldo wreaking havoc to Taribo West 's hair, there were cult references almost everywhere you looked - not to mention a thrilling contest in which Inter Milan stamped their authority on Lazio with a 3-0 win which could have been even worse, with Ronaldo and Ivan Zamorano both hitting the woodwork too.

The deadly strike duo did both get on the scoresheet, though, bookending the scorers either side of a thunderous Javier Zanetti strike which ranks among the greatest ever UEFA Cup final goals and surely the best of the 21 he went on to score in 858 games for the club.

Throw two red cards into the drama and, while one-sided, the 1998 final was a classic as Inter lifted the trophy for a third time in the space of eight years - making them the most successful club in the competition's history at the time.

Italian clubs between them won the UEFA Cup eight times in the space of 11 years during this decade, in addition to one reaching the Champions League final every year from 1992 to 1998, and now Inter will be hoping to usher in a new era of Serie A dominance on Friday.

7. Liverpool 4-3 agg. Club Brugge (1976)

Speaking of heralding eras of dominance, Liverpool lifted the UEFA Cup for the second time in 1976 in a two-legged tie widely credited with giving the players the belief for the European Cup success which would follow, lifting that biggest prize of all four times in the eight years that followed this triumph.

The first leg of the tie also set the template for famous European comebacks by Liverpool in the future, with Bob Paisley 's side looking in trouble when they conceded twice in the opening 15 minutes of the first leg at Anfield.

In scenes eerily similar to a certain Champions League final 29 years later, though, the Reds stormed back with three goals in six second-half minutes to wrestle control of the tie back into their own hands.

A Ray Kennedy stunner just before the hour mark set them on their way before half-time introduction Jimmy Case scrambled home from close range and Kevin Keegan completed the quickfire turnaround from the penalty spot.

Liverpool still had to travel to Belgium for the second leg, but the home side's early penalty was quickly cancelled out by another Keegan strike to secure a 4-3 aggregate triumph.

6. Celtic 2-3 Porto (2003)

Porto's 2002-03 UEFA Cup campaign was the first time much of Europe became aware of a young up-and-coming manager called Jose Mourinho, and their victory over Celtic in the final provided the template for their shock Champions League triumph one year later.

History was bound to be made with no club from Portugal or Scotland having lifted the trophy before, and a whopping 80,000 Celtic fans were reported to make the trip out to Seville hoping it would be them.

That sizeable contingent ended up disappointed, but the neutrals did not as a topsy-turvy contest really caught fire in the second half and ended up going all the way to extra time.

Derlei opened the scoring in first-half stoppage time only for Celtic's talisman Henrik Larsson to restore parity almost immediately after the restart with his 200th goal for the club and his 10th of the season in the UEFA Cup.

Porto were back in front just seven minutes after that, but once again their lead was short-lived as Larsson struck again to make it 2-2 and force extra time.

Celtic's task was made tougher by a rash Bobo Balde challenge which earned him a second yellow card, though, and Derlei doubled his tally with five minutes remaining of extra time to fire Porto to the trophy, despite the Portuguese outfit also having a man sent off late on.

5. Ipswich Town 5-4 agg. AZ (1981)

While this list is littered with famous names from European football, the 1981 UEFA Cup final was contested between two more unfamiliar clubs as far as the upper echelon is concerned.

Dutch outfit AZ had only been formed 14 years earlier but had quickly become a force in the Netherlands thanks to some backing from wealthy investors, while legendary manager Bobby Robson had done what even Alf Ramsey could not and led Ipswich to a first ever European final.

AZ had stormed to the Eredivisie title with six games to spare, and yet they were no match for Ipswich in a one-sided first leg at Portman Road as the Tractor Boys ran out 3-0 winners - John Wark opening the scoring from the spot for his 13th goal of a remarkable UEFA Cup campaign during which he netted in every round.

After the match Robson said that his side had "blitzed" the "best of Dutch football", while he is later reported to have made an even bolder claim ahead of the second leg, threatening to leave Ipswich if they blew their three-goal advantage.

The chances of those words coming back to bite the future England and Barcelona boss looked impossible when Ipswich took an early lead in the second leg to extend their aggregate advantage, leaving AZ needing four goals without reply to force extra time.

By half time, AZ had three of those goals, but another Wark strike - a record-equalling 14th of the tournament season - shortly after the half-hour mark gave them some breathing space and even a fourth for AZ was not enough as they ran out 4-2 winners on the night, but 5-4 losers on aggregate.

4. Bayer Leverkusen 3-3 agg. Espanyol (1988)

While AZ's comeback in 1981 fell agonisingly short, Bayer Leverkusen's in the final seven years later ranks among the greatest in European history.

Espanyol appeared to have taken the tie away from the Germans within an 11-minute blitz either side of half time in the first leg in Spain, as a brace from Sebastian Losada either side of a low strike from Miquel Soler put the hosts in command.

And so it remained until almost the hour mark of the return fixture in Leverkusen, when the hosts launched a stirring second-half comeback to level things up on aggregate and force extra time.