Played at the Volksparkstadion in Hamburg, Germany, on 12 May 2010,[5] the match was won by Spain's Atlético Madrid, who, after extra time, beat England's Fulham 2–1.

The committee – who selected the venue for the 2010 UEFA Champions League Final at the same meeting – based their decision on a number of key criteria, including stadium capacity, facilities and security.

The disappointment of coming so close to playing a final at home was doubled for the Hamburg fans as this was the second consecutive year in which they had been knocked out at the same stage in the UEFA Cup/Europa League – in 2008–09, they lost out to local rivals Werder Bremen.

Two recent finals had involved a team playing at their usual stadium: Feyenoord defeated Borussia Dortmund in Rotterdam in 2002, while Sporting CP lost to CSKA Moscow in Lisbon in 2005.

The logo for the 2010 final was revealed at the EAST Hotel Cinema in Hamburg on 30 November 2009 – to coincide with the opening of ticket sales for German residents on 1 December – and the ceremony was attended by Karin Von Welck, the regional officer for sport and culture, German Football Association general secretary Wolfgang Niersbach, Hamburger SV chairman Bernd Hoffmann and Germany Under-19 coach Horst Hrubesch.

[2] As part of an ongoing experiment throughout the entire 2009–10 UEFA Europa League, there were also two additional assistant referees with the task of monitoring each penalty area; the extra officials for the 2010 final were Paolo Tagliavento and Andrea De Marco.

As well as De Gea, Flores rested a further six regular first-team players for their penultimate league match: Luis Perea, Paulo Assunção, Simão, Raúl García, Diego Forlán, and Sergio Agüero.

[20] In the Fulham camp, the most severe injury concerns related to top-scorer Bobby Zamora and winger Damien Duff; Zamora strained his Achilles tendon in the second leg of Fulham's semi-final against Hamburger SV on 29 April and missed the last three league games of the season, while Duff picked up a calf injury in the penultimate league game against Stoke City on 5 May.

Other players with minor injuries included Paul Konchesky (ankle), Brede Hangeland (knee), Aaron Hughes (groin), John Paintsil (muscle strain), and Bjørn Helge Riise (stomach cramps).

[23] Atlético started the stronger side and had a chance to take the lead in the 12th minute when Sergio Agüero latched onto a backpass from Danny Murphy and played the ball into Diego Forlán, whose shot struck the post.

[24] The sustained pressure from the Spanish club was eventually rewarded when a mistimed shot from Agüero fell to Forlán, who struck the ball past Mark Schwarzer to give Atlético a 1–0 lead.

[6] In the second half, Fulham began to gain a foothold in the game and went close to taking the lead after an hour when Simon Davies struck a shot following a poor clearance, which required a save from Atlético goalkeeper David de Gea.

In the 55th minute, Bobby Zamora, who had been a fitness doubt prior to the game, was replaced by Clint Dempsey, who became the first American to appear in a major European football final.