Aston Villa defeated Freiburg 3-0 to claim the Europa League, 44 years after the club’s 1982 European Cup victory. Youri Tielemans and Emi Buendía scored eye-catching goals before Morgan Rogers added a third as the Premier League side dominated a one-sided final.
The victory gives manager Unai Emery his fifth Europa League trophy, and his fourth club to lift the prize. According to the report, Emery has now won the competition five times — three with Sevilla, once with Villarreal and now with Villa — a tally matched among major European tournaments only by Carlo Ancelotti’s five Champions League triumphs. Emery is the first coach to win the same continental tournament with three different teams, and the hefty 47kg trophy was claimed on the banks of the Bosphorus.
Captain John McGinn, seven years on from helping Villa return to the Premier League via the Championship playoff final, lifted the trophy amid scenes of celebration. The triumph is Villa’s first major trophy since their 1996 League Cup success over Leeds United and marks the high-water point of the club’s modern resurgence following relegation from the top flight in 2016.
Many members of the current core have been part of Villa’s recent rise. Tyrone Mings and Tammy Abraham were alongside McGinn at Wembley in 2019, while Ezri Konsa, Emi Martínez, Ollie Watkins and Matty Cash joined within the following 12 months. The squad has learned from near-misses in recent seasons, including a run to the Conference League semifinals in 2024 and a Champions League quarterfinal in which they pushed eventual winners Paris Saint-Germain.
Emery’s gameplan emphasized Villa’s physical and technical superiority, the report says, with Tielemans’ thumping opener setting the tone for a composed, clinical display. Around 11,000 Villa supporters in the claret-and-blue end of Besiktas Park watched the club complete a remarkable turnaround under Emery, who in four years has taken a team from 17th place in the league to continental champions. The side had not won any of their first four matches this season and did not score until the end of September, underscoring the scale of the recovery.
