Thursday 30 May 2019 10:57, UK
Swathes of seats were empty in Baku for Chelsea's Europa League final win over Arsenal - despite the best efforts of both clubs and UEFA to fill the Olympic Stadium.
After the two Premier League sides sent back as many as 6,000 unsold tickets between them last week, with the 5,000-mile round-trip deemed unmanageable to a large volume of English fans, attempts by the governing body to sell them on to local fans appeared unsuccessful.
The official attendance for the match was 51,370 in a stadium that holds 68,700, which UEFA confirmed as the third-highest of any Europa League final, according to the Press Association.
UEFA insist it would be wrong to suggest the 17,330 empty seats were unsold pointing out fans across Europe bought tickets when they first went out on sale but did not attend.
Sky Sports News understands that UEFA will not be reconsidering Baku as a venue for the European Championships in 2020.
And locals unfurled a banner at the end of the game that read: "We are part of football. Thanks to UEFA for the final."
But Sky Sports reporter Dharmesh Sheth, who was inside the stadium, described the atmosphere as "reminiscent of a World Cup group game" and said it "didn't really have the feeling of a major European final".
Huge gaps were evident around the stadium but there appeared to be considerably more Arsenal supporters than Chelsea fans, despite the Blues coming out on top in a 4-1 demolition of their London rivals.
The Gunners expected to have around 4,000 supporters in the stadium, having sold more than 3,000 tickets and a further 500 or so going to supporters clubs from across the world, while Chelsea sold around 2,000 of their 6,000 allocation.
Sky Sports reporter Gary Cotterill said: "Baku have been good hosts but the attempts to flog spare tickets to locals didn't really work and there was a lack of real passion inside the stadium."
Nevertheless, Maurizio Sarri lifted his first trophy as a manager amid speculation he is set to join Juventus soon after the game, and Eden Hazard may have lifted his last with Chelsea, having admitted afterwards: "I think it's goodbye."
Hazard scored twice in a comprehensive performance from the Blues, after Olivier Giroud opened the scoring early in the second half and Pedro made it 2-0, with just Alex Iwobi scoring for Arsenal to make it 3-1.
