Istanbul
Aston Villa are the 2025/26 Europa League winners. This is what it means.
Europe. Europe. Europe.
He said it three times, didn’t he? Unai Emery. Was it quirkiness, or did he know?
Away to Olympiacos, dreams shattered. At home against Paris Saint-Germain, hope burning out. Here, in Istanbul…
Three times. That’s the charm.
It is around 3.00pm in Türkiye. The rain is approaching biblical proportions and is flowing down towards Beşiktaş from Taksim Square.
I am nervous. So nervous it’s almost a state of normality. Three-digit-heartrate locked in since this morning. I haven’t talked meaningfully about the game, just Aston Villa vagaries and chanting.
8.00pm. Nerves still haven’t settled. Downpours haven’t cooled the tension.
It’s 10.00pm. The stadium breathes in, and kicks off.
It’s 10.40pm. You could’ve been forgiven for thinking the half of football was slipping away. You were already thinking about penalties, weren’t you?
Then there’s a corner. Passed short. Innocuous. It’s flicked over. It hangs forever. Is this what it comes down to? Another corner just like this?
And then it’s struck. And then it’s in. You don’t celebrate. You don’t realise. The Villa players run towards one of their own. Then it hits. Villa are in front. Good lord. A shoulder hits you in the chin, you struggle to stand on your own, bodies fall over yours and then you’re back. I’m told it was brilliant.
Before you can even digest that, it’s there again, but this time with grace. It’s struck and it was always, always, always going in. You’re on the floor. You’re back up. Villa are 2-0 up in a European final.
But there’s one more. It slides in. Three in total.
Youri Tielemans, Emi Buendía, Morgan Rogers.
Europe. Europe. Europe.
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What is the biggest day of your football supporting life meant to be like? How are you meant to feel when you could’ve never expected something, never wished for it, and here it is, happening, so confidently before your eyes?
The trophy is lifted and it sparkles. There’s applause, and tears. The floodgates open, rain falls and the thunder claps.
Aston Villa are European champions once again.