Europa League: Villa finish league phase in style

Unai Emery’s Aston Villa side complete stunning comeback to beat Salzburg at Villa Park, confirming a place in the top two in the League Phase after eight matches.

The league phase of the 2025/26 UEFA Europa League has now come to an end, and it sees Aston Villa sitting in second place with a tremendous total of 21 points from 8 matches, which has seen them qualify automatically for the Round of 16 with ease. Their top eight finish was achieved with a win in Istanbul against Turkish giants Fenerbahce last week.

Unai Emery’s Villa side then came into Thursday night’s game at Villa Park against Austrian side RB Salzburg at Villa Park. And, whilst the Villans did not have the pressure of securing their place in the top eight, the game did still matter as they could confirm their place in the top two with a victory in B6.

And, they did, in the end, get the job done in what was a competitive and enthralling game against Salzburg on the night, winning 3 -2. And, in another boost for fans, new signings Douglas Luiz and Tammy Abraham, who both returned to the Midlands club this week, were also in attendance.

Harvey Elliott came very close to scoring for the Villas on his return to the starting line-up in the opening moments of the match, only for Salzburg stopper Alexander Schlager to make a remarkable stop with his feet in order to deny the Liverpool loanee. This came shortly after an initial effort on goal from Ollie Watkins (1’).

Tyrone Mings then had an attempt on goal of his own for the home side, but his header was saved by the visitors’ Austrian goalkeeper as well (2’).

Not long after that, Salzburg had their first efforts on goal. The first came from forward Karim Konaté, who had his shot blocked (7’), before Sota Kitano was also denied a goal, this time thanks to a great block from the Villa defence a few minutes later (12’).

It was with just over half an hour gone that the opening goal was scored. The aforementioned Karim Konaté capitalised on a mistake from Tyrone Mings to score from very close range, with fellow central defender Victor Lindelöf unable to prevent the ball from crossing the line (33’).

Edmund Baidoo (36’) and Kerim Alajbegovic (40’) both had further efforts on goal for Salzburg, but they were both unable to do so, with the effort from the former being saved well by Emiliano Martinez for Aston Villa.

Villa did have work to do in the second half after they went into the halftime break behind against the Austrian Bundesliga league leaders.

The second half got underway with the home side making a substitution, with Matty Cash replacing young midfielder George Hemmings. This saw Lamare Bogarde, who had been playing at right back, return to his referred position in midfield for the rest of the game (46’).

Visitors RB Salzburg did manage to double their advantage through substitute Moussa Yeo, who found the back of the net with what was another close range finish after receiving a ball into his feet from Alajbegovic (49’).

Then, the Villa did start to fight back, halving the deficit through a goal from Morgan Rogers with just over half an hour of the game to go, when the England international found the bottom left corner following a ball into his feet from Emiliano Buendia (64’).

Tyrone Mings then made up for his earlier error by scoring his first competitive goal since 2023, making it 2 – 2. His goal to restore parity came thanks to a close range header after he had met a great ball into the box from Matty Cash (76’).

Jamaldeen Jimoh-Aloba, another second half substitute, then scored his first-ever senior goal for the club when he found the bottom right corner of the Salzburg net in dramatic fashion, in what turned out to be the winning goal in the end. The assist from this goal came from another member of the Academy alumni – Kadan Young (87’).

As previously mentioned, this 3 – 2 victory over RB Salzburg for Aston Villa at Villa Park was enough to give the Villans 21 points, which was enough for a top two finish, with only French giants Lyon finishing above them on goal difference alone.

The other clubs that finished in the top eight were Denmark’s Midtjylland, Spain’s Real Betis, Portugal’s FC Porto and Braga, as well as Germany’s Freiburg, and Italy’s Roma.

Finishing second in the league phase after all eight matches now ensures that Unai Emery’s Villa side will play the second leg of the Round of 16, Quarter Final, and Semi Final at the home of the Villans, Villa Park.

The draw for the Round of 16 will take place on Friday, 27th February, with the first (away) leg being played on Thursday, 12th March, with the second (home) leg being a week later on Thursday, 19th March 2026.

Villa’s potential opponents in this round have been confirmed as well. Emery and his team will be facing one of Greece’s PAOK, France’s Lille, Spain’s Celta Vigo, and Serbia’s Red Star Belgrade. These sides finished the league phase in 17th, 18th, 16th, and 15th place, respectively, in the end. They will all now be taking part in the Knockout Play-Offs that are held in February.

Overall, Aston Villa managed to win 7 of their 8 games in the league phase, with them getting the better of Italy’s Bologna (1 – 0), the Netherlands’ Feyenoord (2 – 0), Israel’s Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Switzerland’s Young Boys (2 – 1) and FC Basel (1 – 2), as well as Turkey’s Fenerbahçe (1 – 0), and finally the aforementioned RB Salzburg.

Aston Villa are one of the favourites to win this season’s competition, and they know that with Unai Emery as Head Coach, that they have a great chance of winning Villa’s first major European honour since lifting the UEFA Super Cup against Spanish giants FC Barcelona all the way back in 1983, which of course came a year after lifting the European Cup against Bayern Munich in Rotterdam.

Unai Emery himself has won the Europa League on four occasions, which is the most of any manager to have ever led a club in the competition. The Spaniard won it three times with La Liga side Sevilla, doing so in the 2013/14, 2014/15, and 2015/16 seasons.

These three consecutive triumphs came after beating Benfica (4 – 2 on penalties), FC Dnipro (2 – 3), and Liverpool (1 – 3) respectively.

Emery then won his latest Europa League title in the 2020/21 campaign with another Spanish side, Villarreal, with it being a 1 – 1 draw after extra time, where Gerard Moreno (29’) and Edinson Cavani (55’) scored for their respective sides. The Yellow Submarine then managed to emerge victorious 11 – 10 following a thrilling and dramatic penalty shootout where Goalkeeper David De Gea missed the crucial spot kick for United.

Excitement is already building ahead of Aston Villa’s Round of 16 tie as they look to take a step closer to the Final in Istanbul, where they will hope to lift major silverware under the stewardship of Head Coach Unai Emery.

Attention does now return to the Premier League, with Villa taking on Keith Andrews’ Brentford side at Villa Park on Sunday, 1st February 2026 in B6. Kick-off is at 2pm on that afternoon, and the hosts will be looking to not only maintain their surprise title challenge, but also to strengthen their bid for Champions League qualification come the end of this season.

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