Sevilla coach since January 2013, Unai Emery started out as a midfielder at Real Sociedad de Fútbol, but spent the bulk of his career in Spain's second division, switching from playing to coaching at Lorca Deportiva CF after a serious knee injury. Having led UD Almería to the top tier he coached Valencia from 2008 to 2012, with his side regular European contenders during that spell. More recently, he had a brief stint at FC Spartak Moskva.
• Emery led Valencia to back-to-back wins against another Portuguese side, CS Marítimo, in his first games as a coach in Europe, in the 2008/09 UEFA Cup.
• His Spartak side met Jorge Jesus's Benfica in the 2012/13 UEFA Champions League group stage; Spartak won 2-1 in Moscow but went down 2-0 in the return fixture in Lisbon. Lima scored for Benfica in the first game, while Óscar Cardozo registered twice in the return. Nicolas Pareja – now on loan at Sevilla from Spartak – featured in both matches.
• Benfica coach Jesus followed his father Jesus Virgolino by signing for Sporting Clube de Portugal as a youngster and was a journeyman midfielder before moving into coaching. He took charge of a number of Portuguese clubs and was given the Benfica job in June 2009 after leading Braga to the last 16 of the 2008/09 UEFA Cup. As well as guiding the Eagles to successive UEFA Europa League finals, Jesus won his second Liga title with Benfica this term and his fourth league cup in five attempts.
• The final will be Jesus's 50th game as a coach in the UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League.
• Jesus is the only Benfica coach – apart from Béla Guttmann in the 1960/61 and 1961/62 European Cup campaigns – to have led the club to European finals in successive seasons.
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