Villa's shot at European glory
[BBC] On Wednesday night, Aston Villa have the chance to end a 30-year major trophy drought by winning the Europa League final against Freiburg in Istanbul. If more motivation was needed, they can win major European silverware for the first time since 1982. This is the first ever meeting between Freiburg and Villa, but Unai Emery's side have reason for optimism against German opponents after defeating both Bundesliga sides they faced in last season's Champions League - Bayern Munich (1-0) and RB Leipzig (3-2).
This is the 11th major European final between an English club and German team, and first since the 2012 Champions League final between Chelsea and Bayern Munich. English teams have won eight of the previous 10, with the only German victories via Borussia Dortmund vs Liverpool in the 1965-66 Cup Winners' Cup and Bayern Munich vs Leeds in the 1974-75 European Cup. [BBC] Aston Villa are featuring in just their second major European final, last winning 1-0 against Bayern Munich in the 1982 European Cup final.
Only Manchester City have ever had a longer gap between their first two finals (1970 – 2021), but under Europa League specialist Unai Emery Villa have been building to this moment. Since the start of 2023-24, no side has won more matches in major European competition than Villa (26) and only Arsenal (19) have kept more clean sheets in that time (16). Emery has managed in five previous major European finals, all in the Europa League, winning four times with Sevilla, once with Villarreal and losing once with Arsenal in 2018-19.
With this his sixth, he goes level with Carlo Ancelotti, Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho for major finals and sits behind only Giovanni Trapattoni on seven. A win would see him go level with Trapattoni, Ancelotti and Mourinho for major European final wins (5).