Aston Villa thrashed SC Freiburg 3-0 at Besiktas Stadium, Istanbul, to secure the 2025-26 UEFA Europa League title.
Youri Tielemans and Emiliano Buendia’s late first-half strikes fired Villa into a comfortable half-time lead, before Morgan Rogers slid in a 58th-minute finish from Buendia’s cross to wrap up Villa’s third major European title.
Villa’s triumph also meant that English clubs have won consecutive editions of this tournament for the first time since Tottenham and Liverpool won 1971-72 and 72-73 editions, with Spurs having too won this competition last season.
Unai Emery meanwhile added a fifth Europa League title to his roll of honours, although this is the first time that he won the competition with a non-Spanish club – having previously won three titles with Sevilla then with Villarreal in 2020-21 season.
Rogers post-match told UK broadcaster, TNT Sport that Villa had earned the title on merit and he was chuffed to get the title-clinching goal to appease Emery who wanted more simple goals from him.
“It’s hard to put into words, we’ve worked so hard for this. We’ve delivered and come through. It’s a great moment for the fans, great for the club. We’ll go down in history.
“There was so much excitement. We’re all really excited.
“The manager has been banging on at me to get easier goals and get into the box. I’m happy I could get a toe onto it and score.
“I’m tired but not that tired. It’s all worth it in the end.”
With a first major European title in 44 years on offer following their European Cup and European Super Cup double in 1982, Villa began on the front foot as Morgan Rogers forced a third-minute block from Freiburg goalkeeper, Noah Atubolu to prevent his shot finding the bottom left corner.
Freiburg soon settled and twice went close through shots from Nicolas Hofler which both flew wide of the right corner, whilst Johan Manzambi saw a tightly-angled shot from 20 yards saved by Emiliano Martinez.
Villa eventually broke the deadlock from a 41st-minute corner which was played short to Rogers, whose cross found Tielemans unmarked to strike low into the far left corner to put Unai Emery’s Villains into a deserved lead.
Emery’s Villains almost extended their lead in the first minute of injury time but Ezri Konsa’s tightly-angled flick lacked power and was cleared by Freiburg’s defence.
Villa though refused to settle for a slender half-time lead and got their second goal just two minutes later as a move up the right found McGinn, with the Scottish midfielder’s pass whipped into the top left corner by Buendia on his left foot from the edge of the box.
Buendia almost replicated his goal in the 50th minute as he attempted to chip Atubolu but the German was alert to make a comfortable save.
Villa eventually put the title decider to bed eight minutes later with a slick piece of passing play which fell to the feet of Buendia out wide, with the Argentinean’s cross slid into the near-left corner by Rogers.
Buendia almost added further icing to Villa’s celebrations in the 76th minute as he played an one-two move with McGinn, yet frustratingly bent his shot into the left-side netting as he attempted to dink over Atubolu into his near-left corner.
Villa eventually saw out a comfortable victory to claim their third major European title, although their Champions League qualification was already confirmed with a guaranteed top-five Premier League finish.
Teams
Freiburg: Noah Atubolu, Lukas Kubler (Makengo 73′), Matthias Ginter, Philipp Lienhart (Rosenfelder 61′), Philipp Treu, Maximilian Eggestein, Nicolas Hofler (Holer 61′), Niklas Beste (Gunter 86′), Johan Manzambi, Vincenzo Grifo (Scherhant 73′), Igor Matanovic
Substitutes: Christian Gunter, Jannik Huth, Lucas Holer, Anthony Jung, Cyriaque Irie, Jordy Makengo, Florian Muller, Bruno Ogbus, Patrick Osterhage, Maximillian Philipp, Max Rosenfelder, Derry Scherhant
Aston Villa: Emiliano Martinez, Matty Cash, Ezri Konsa, Pau Torres (Mings 88′), Lucas Digne (Maatsen 81′), Victor Lindelöf (Onana 66′), Youri Tielemans (Luiz 88′), John McGinn, Morgan Rogers, Emiliano Buendia (Sancho 81′), Ollie Watkins
Substitutes: Leon Bailey, Tammy Abraham, Marco Bizot, Lamare Bogarde, Harvey Elliott, Andres Garcia, Ian Maatsen, Tyrone Mings, Amadou Onana, Jadon Sancho, Douglas Luiz, James Wright
Referee – Francois Letexier
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