Aston Villa and Freiburg Set for Historic Europa League Final Clash

Istanbul will host this year’s UEFA Europa League Final with competition favourites Aston Villa taking on Germany’s Freiburg.

Villa fans may think they’re enduring an eternal trophy drought, but their German counterparts haven’t won a trophy in over a century.​

After three consecutive years of reaching the knockout stages of a European competition, Unai Emery will be desperate to write his and his players’ names in Villa folklore and lift the trophy in Istanbul.

Several decades have passed since the Villans beat Bayern Munich to become European Champions, and the names of Peter Withe and Tony Morley still sit inside Villa Park.

Villa have won all but one game in this year’s competition as they finished second in the league phase, before besting Lille and Bologna to progress to the semi-finals.

An all-English semi-final was in store with Villa facing Nottingham Forest.

Despite losing the first leg 1-0 at the City Ground, Villa hammered Forest 4-0 with club captain John McGinn scoring a brace to put his side into the final with hopes to win the club’s first major trophy since 1996.

Emery’s side confirmed their spot in next season’s UEFA Champions League after a superb display, beating Premier League champions Liverpool 4-1, allowing them to fully focus on Wednesday’s final.

No side has won more European matches than Villa since the start of the 2023/24 season, with the Villans winning on 26 occasions, with only Arsenal keeping more clean sheets.

The biggest confidence boost for Villa is the fact that Unai Emery will be in their dugout. Their Basque-born boss has won the competition on four occasions and remains the only manager to do so.

He also recently celebrated his 600th victory as a professional manager, joining an exclusive club full of the sport’s most elite managers.

The other side of the tie sees Freiburg aiming to win their first title since they were formed 122 years ago.

Building on the stellar work of former boss Christian Streich, who led them from 2011 through to 2024, the Black Forest club’s third Europa League campaign in four years has already proved their best by far.

It has been a truly remarkable run, given their modest means, as Julian Schuster’s side went unbeaten across the first seven league-phase games before racking up goal after goal in the knockout rounds.

Following a 5-2 aggregate defeat of Genk, they swept past Celta Vigo in the quarter-finals, winning 6-1 overall to set up a semi-final tie against Braga.

Despite losing the first leg 2-1 in Portugal, Braga was reduced to 10 men early in southern Germany, before goals from Lukas Kubler and Johan Manzambi put Freiburg in front.

Though their visitors then set up a tense finale by pulling one back, the hosts still held on to reach the final, breaking more new ground for the Breisgau-based club.

Impressive firepower has certainly played its part. Scoring at least three times in four out of six knockout games has taken their tally to 25 goals so far, and only fellow finalists Aston Villa have notched more (28).

Schuster’s men were at it again last weekend, thumping RB Leipzig 4-1 to secure seventh place in the Bundesliga and wrap up Conference League qualification for next season.

Of course, they can upgrade to an unprecedented berth in the Champions League by beating Villa, but finally lifting some silverware would mean much more than that. As doubts remain about the fitness of Amadou Onana, who has not featured since limping out of the semi-final first leg in Nottingham, Emery could continue with Victor Lindelof as an auxiliary midfielder for Wednesday’s final.

However, the latter was substituted with a foot problem on Friday, so either Douglas Luiz or Lamare Bogarde may be asked to deputise; Ross Barkley is ineligible, and Boubacar Kamara has been sidelined for the rest of the season.

In the final third, several men are running into peak form: continuing his purple patch, Ollie Watkins found the net twice against Liverpool and is Villa’s top scorer in this continental campaign with five goals so far​

Meanwhile, Emi Buendia has produced eight goal involvements from 11 Europa League starts; Morgan Rogers ranks top for both chances created (27) and touches inside the opposition box (65) in this term’s competition.

Though Freiburg will be missing Yuito Suzuki due to a fractured collarbone, and Patrick Osterhage is a doubt, Schuster should have all of his main men available.

Rising star Manzambi leads the Europa League rankings for possession won (72), duels won (97) and fouls won (37); veteran defender Matthias Ginter has not missed a single minute and has already scored twice in the knockout stages.

All-time top scorer Vincenzo Grifo has recorded at least one goal involvement in each of his last five European appearances, while Croatian striker Igor Matanovic netted his 11th Bundesliga goal of the season last weekend.

Set to join captain Maximilian Eggestein in midfield, Nicolas Hofler is preparing for an emotional send-off, just days after playing his 293rd and final league game for the club.