Atletico won the inaugural Europa League two years ago 2-1 against England's Fulham in Hamburg.
They followed up that triumph three months later by overcoming Champions League winners Inter Milan 2-0 in Monte Carlo for the European Super Cup.
"We want to repeat what we achieved in 2010," said captain Antonio Lopez. "That was a wonderful achievement, now we want to do it again."
However, it will be a very different Atletico team on Wednesday to the one that beat Fulham and Inter.
Only four players - Lopez himself, Alvaro Dominguez, Luis Perea and Paulo Assuncao - are still at the club, and none of these four are sure of their place in the starting lineup of coach Diego Simeone.
Lopez and Perea are about to leave the club. They were given an emoptional send-off by the Estadio Calderon on Saturday before a 2-1 defeat of Malaga which left Atletico in fifth place.
"On Wednesday we will be playing for our lives. It will be a great day. It is very difficult to reach a final ... I hope it will be the icing on the cake to my spell at the club," Perea said.
Lopez said: "I always said that I didn't want to leave this club without picking up a trophy, and fortunately I have been able to lift two (in 2010). I hope we don't miss the chance to pick up a third one."
Neither team has any injury worries. While Simeone was putting out his best 11 against Malaga, Bilbao coach Marcelo Bielsa was resting most of his first-teamers in Saturday's 0-0 draw with Getafe.
Bilbao is the European team which has played most games this season, in reaching not only the Europa League final but also the Spanish cup final.
The wear and tear on Bielsa's young Basques has caused them to slip down to 10th in La Liga.
However, they will be fresh and keen on Wednesday, determined to give the club a first continental trophy - and rub out the memory of a narrow defeat on away goals against Juventus in the 1977 Uefa Cup final.
Bilbao are a unique case in European football because they eschew foreign signings and field only players born or brought up in the Basque provinces.
"We are expectant, wanting the day of the final to arrive straight away," said Ander Iturraspe, one of Bilbao's many promising prospects.
"The fans are also expectant, as always, with a lot of hope. We perceive this and it is very positive for us to know that we have that pressure to do our best."
Another of Bielsa's young midfield tigers, Oscar de Marcos, said: "In the past few days I have had a tension in my stomach when I think about the final. We have to keep this tension at bay. We are all waiting for the big day to arrive, we can hardly wait."
Iturraspe and De Marcos will line up in midfield alongside the elegant Ander Herrera and the lively Markel Susaeta, with enfant terrible Iker Muniain in attack alongside Spain striker Fernando Llorente.
Herrera, Muniain and Llorente are high on the shopping lists of many top clubs for this summer, alongside midfielder-cum-defender Javi Martinez, another Spanish international.
Wednesday's game is the first European final played in Romania. Around 15 000 fans of each club are expected to make the trip, many of them without a match ticket.
Bucharest police expect few problems between the two groups of supporters as Atletico and Bilbao have always enjoyed good relations.
Atletico were founded in 1903 by a group of Basque students in Madrid as a branch of their beloved Bilbao club. This is why the two teams have similar names and colours, and a long-standing friendship between them.
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