The final was the 171st competitive meeting between Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool, with a record of 79 Liverpool wins, 48 Tottenham wins and 43 draws. The sides met twice during the 2018–19 Premier League season, with Liverpool winning 2–1 on both occasions. They had faced each other once before in a European tie, meeting in the semi-final of the 1972–73 UEFA Cup; Liverpool won the first leg 1–0 at home and Tottenham won the second meeting 2–1, though Liverpool advanced to the final on away goals, before beating Borussia Monchengladbach in the final. Domestically, the sides had met once in a cup final, with Liverpool winning 3–1 after extra time in the 1982 Football League Cup Final. Both managers were seeking their first major title with their respective clubs.
The match was the first final since 2013 not to feature a Spanish team, with Real Madrid (2014, 2016, 2017 and 2018) and Barcelona (2015) having won the previous five seasons of the competition. It was also the first final to be won by an English team since Chelsea in 2012, as well as the second all-English final, after Manchester United and Chelsea in 2008. Overall, the match was the seventh final to feature two teams from the same association, previously achieved on three occasions by Spanish teams (2000, 2014 and 2016), and once by Italian (2003) and German (2013) teams, in addition to England in 2008.
As Chelsea and Arsenal also reached the 2019 UEFA Europa League Final, this was the first season to have multiple finals of major European club competitions featuring teams from a single nation.
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