Ever since he replaced Roberto Di Matteo as the manager of Chelsea, Rafael Benitez has faced the ire of the club’s supporters largely due to his past love affair with Liverpool and his rivalry with Chelsea favourite Jose Mourinho.
However, with the Europa League final drawing closer, Chelsea fans should be hopeful of some silverware at the end of the season as in the Spaniard, they have a manager who has been very successful in cup competitions and has done especially well in Europe.
Moreover, since establishing his reputation at Valencia all those years ago, Benitez has managed to win a trophy at every club he has been at, which only bodes well for Chelsea who are keen on drawing curtains to the current campaign on a high.
Success in Cup finals
In total, Rafael Benitez has featured in 10 cup finals out of which, he has won six, thus maintaining a fairly decent win percentage of 60. Benitez should be proud of this magnificent achievement and Chelsea fans will be hoping he can better his record when the Blues face Benfica in the Europa Cup final on Wednesday.
Success in European Cup finals
The Spanish tactician has led his sides to five European Cup finals (including the European Supercups) in which he has been on the losing side twice only, thus maintaining a win percentage of 60.
The aforementioned winning percentage clearly suggests that Rafael Benitez has fared admirably in cup finals which could only be to Chelsea’s benefit ahead of the Europa League final against Benfica.
Goals scored and conceded in major European Cup finals (Champions League and UEFA Cup)
Benitez’s sides have scored six goals in three major European cup finals and have conceded four. If Benitez’s record in Cup finals is anything to go by, we can certainly expect a high scoring Europa Cup final.
Time to score
When it comes to scoring goals in major European Cup finals, it is quite evident that Benitez’s sides tend to score mostly during the second half. In fact, the only time a Benitez-led team has scored a goal in the first half of a European Cup final was during the 2004 UEFA Cup final when Vicente scored via a penalty in the third minute of first half injury time against Marseille in a game that Los Che went on to win 2-0.
Total goals scored in all cup finals
In total, Rafael Benitez’s sides have managed to score 24 goals in cup finals whilst conceding 14 in ten games. This once again suggests that Benitez’s sides have fared well in Cup finals averaging 2.4 goals scored in every game.
Penalty shoot-out record
In total, Rafael Benitez has been a part of two penalty shoot-outs and on both occasions, has ended up being on the winning side which means that should Wednesday’s Europa League final goes down to penalties, Chelsea might be considering their odds to winning back-to-back European competitions.
All in all, stats are heavily in favour of Rafael Benitez’s side ahead of the final at the Amsterdam Arena. The Spanish tactician, despite his critics, has the tendency to come good in cup finals which clearly suggests that Chelsea will have an upper-hand over their Iberian rivals on Wednesday.
