Radamel Falcao was briefly the world's best forward during lethal Atletico Madrid spell

It's not always the case that the two best teams in a competition meet in the final, but there was certainly a case for this when Radamel Falcao inspired Atletico Madrid to victory over Athletic Bilbao in the 2011-12 Europa League.

Atleti had a very good argument, having won every single one of their knockout legs. Their opponents, meanwhile, had topped their group under Marcelo Bielsa before securing stunning home and away victories over Manchester United on their way to the final.

Diego Simeone's team had a squad which, while not yet capable of challenging for domestic honours, had more than enough to conquer Europe's secondary competition. They had a promising young goalkeeper by the name of Thibaut Courtois, future La Liga winners Juanfran and Diego Godin in defence, and, in Falcao, one of the best strikers on the continent at that moment in time.

To describe Falcao as unplayable during his time in the Spanish capital might actually be an understatement. He'd already torn up the continent at Porto, leading them to glory in the previous season's Europa League with a 17-goal haul which no one has come close to matching since, and he picked up where he left off after moving in the summer of 2011.

The Colombian already had 23 league goals and 10 in Europe before the final. Seven of those 10 had been in the knockout stages - two against each of Lazio, Hannover and Valencia, and one against Besiktas - but he wasn't going to rest for the all-La Liga final in Bucharest.

It didn't even take Falcao 10 minutes to open the scoring, and his first goal that evening showed that no defensive preparation was enough to cope with him. If you pushed up, he'd be able to get in behind, while if you got tight he would turn you with