Bucharest: A first half brace by Colombian striker Radamel Falcao helped Atletico Madrid beat their fellow Spanish club Athletic Bilbao 3-0 to clinch their second Europa League crown in three season in Bucharest on Wednesday.

Falcao who was part of the Porto side last year which won the championship set a record of being the first player Falcao to win the Europa League with two different sides. He also scored the winner for Porto in the last year’s final.

Brazilian striker Diego scored the third goal late into the second half to help Argentine coach Diego Simeone to sign off the season on a perfect note few months after he took over the responsibility of coaching the side.

Madrid started the game on an attacking note and Falcao drew the first blood of the match in the seventh minute of the match.

Fernando Llorente of Bilbao after missing a header early on in the match wasted a plausible chance of leveling the score in the 19th minute of the match.

Falcao on the other hand was on fire and after making continuous strides he found the nets for the second time in the 34th minute of the match.

After the change of ends, both the teams were looking evenly matched and both the teams missed some good chances of scoring in the first 15 minutes of the second half.

But as the match gradually progressed, Atletico started to strengthen their grip on the match and they finally struck the last nail in the coffin after Diego’s fine solo effort saw him scoring the third goal of the match just five minutes ahead of the hooter.

The victory helped Athletico break Barcelona’s record of consecutive wins in European competition. Athletico won 12 on the trot surpassing the Catalans 11 straight wins in the 2002-03 Champions League.

By Indian Sports News Network