Aston Villa team news and Europa League final match preview
Unai Emery is targeting Villa's first major trophy since Brian Little won the Coca-Cola Cup in 1996
26th May 1982. The last and only previous time Aston Villa played in a European final. 24th March 1996. The last time Aston Villa won a major trophy. There’s no hiding from it: the 2025/26 Europa League final is monumental.
Villa will take on German Bundesliga side Freiburg in the Europa League final in Istanbul on Wednesday and it means everything. Unai Emery and his team ensured that a Champions League place is already settled – this is about the trophy.
Thirty years without silverware is too long but the truth is Villa as a club have deserved almost every day of it, one way or another. As nebulous a notion ‘deserve’ is in football, the bottom line is this Villa team have to win this one.
Emery has to win it. John McGinn has to win it. Tyrone Mings has to win it. Ollie Watkins has to win it. Every player who came in and helped turn a relegation-ready team into a challenger has to win it.
Villa will never have another chance to make that happen with this squad. It’s such pressure I feel claustrophobic just as a supporter in the Midlands. That’s what the players must handle in Turkey.
The form book
Both teams are heading into the final on a high. Villa won 4-2 against Liverpool in their most recent Premier League match, confirming a Champions League place. Freiburg beat RB Leipzig 4-1 in the Bundesliga on Saturday afternoon.
They finished the season in seventh place, meaning they’re currently in possession of a place in next season’s Conference League play-off round. They’d love to upgrade that this week.
Current form:
FRE – 🟢🟢🔴🟠🔴🟢 (Bundesliga)
AVL – 🟠🟢🔴🔴🟠🟢 (Premier League)
Villa and Freiburg both ended up in the top eight after the league phase, Villa in second and their final opponents in seventh. Both went straight to the round of 16.
Emery’s team beat Lille 3-0 on aggregate and then put seven past Bologna in the quarter-finals, winning all four legs. Freiburg came out on top against Genk and Celta Vigo even more comfortably.
Both teams had to overcome first-leg defeats to win their semi-final ties, Villa against Nottingham Forest and Freiburg against Braga.
The top goalscorers left in the competition are McGinn, Watkins and Freiburg’s Vincenzo Grifo. They’ve scored five goals each in this season’s Europa League and the Italian’s fifth was the crucial goal in defeat in the first leg against Braga.
Since the Bundesliga returned from its Winterpause, Freiburg have won eight and lost eight of their nineteen league fixtures – that would put them bottom of the top half but well clear of the team in tenth.
Aston Villa team news
Amadou Onana – Missed the last four games with a calf injury but is back in training and will be assessed before the game.
Victor Lindelöf – Substituted at half time against Liverpool, apparently as no more than a precaution.
Alysson – Not yet back from injury and omitted from the Europa League squad.
Ross Barkley – Not included in the European squad.
Boubacar Kamara – Out for the season after knee surgery.
Embrace destiny
Since Villa’s second-leg walloping of Forest, captain McGinn and vice-captain Ezri Konsa have both publicly discussed the need to embrace their situation. It’s hard to put that situation into adequate words.
This final can go either of two ways but only one of them bears thinking about. Let’s get the other one out of the way right here and right now: Villa could lose in Istanbul. If there’s any complacency, any dip in quality, that’s exactly what will happen.
The prize for Emery and these Villa players is almost beyond comprehension. There are football clubs who’ve had a rougher ride, many doldrums worse than ours, but Villa are so close to a second European trophy that the yearning is quite suddenly off the charts.
Villa’s players have a chance to become immortal at a football club with many kings but few gods.
Players don’t join those ranks by qualifying for Europe, or by winning the Coca-Cola Cup, or by finishing fifth or fourth or third or second in the league. I adore the team that got Villa promoted and I mean that sincerely, but winning the Europa League would overshadow even that.
We’re talking about Brian Little, Gordon Cowans and Paul McGrath. Dennis Mortimer. Tony Morley and Peter Withe. Gary Shaw. Ron Saunders. Peter McParland and Johnny Dixon. George Ramsay. William McGregor.
We’re talking about true Aston Villa icons forever.
It’s all right there in front of you, Villa boys. Go and take it.
Freiburg v Aston Villa is an 8.00pm kick-off on Wednesday 20th May.
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