Aston Villa are poised to win their first European title since the Intertoto Cup in 2001, with Unai Emery’s side now odds-on to lift the Europa League trophy after reaching the final in Istanbul.
Villa’s resurgent form
Emery’s men started the season slowly but have hit form at the perfect time, a run underpinned by the manager’s deep expertise in this competition. Villa secured a top-five Premier League finish, guaranteeing Champions League football next season, and their knockout path to the final has seen them dispatch Lille, Bologna and, most recently, Vitor Pereira’s Nottingham Forest. Ollie Watkins has been in devastating form, scoring ten goals in his last 11 appearances and registering a goal contribution in every Europa League knockout stage match.
The numbers paint a picture of a side built for European nights: Villa have won 26 matches in continental competitions since the start of the 2023-24 season and kept 16 clean sheets in that period. Their last major final was the 2019-20 League Cup, which they lost 2-1 to Manchester City, and this is only the club’s second major European final after they famously won the European Cup in 1982. That victory over Bayern Munich was followed by the European Super Cup later that year. Villa have not won a major trophy in 30 years, though they did add the Intertoto Cup in 2001 and were also co-winners of that competition in 2008.
Freiburg’s historic run
Standing between Villa and silverware are SC Freiburg of the Bundesliga, a club playing in its first-ever UEFA competition final. Nicknamed the Breisgau-Brasilianer, Freiburg finished seventh in the German table this season but have excelled on the continent, dispatching Genk, Celta Vigo and Braga to reach the Istanbul showpiece. Their entire European history has been in the UEFA Cup/Europa League, spanning seven campaigns since 1995. This season they have scored 25 goals in the competition — only three German teams have managed more in a single campaign since the 2009-10 relaunch.
Freiburg last brought silverware home in 2016, when they won the 2. Bundesliga to earn promotion back to the top flight, and they reached the DFB-Pokal final in 2021-22, losing to RB Leipzig on penalties. Their previous encounters with English opposition came in the 2023-24 Europa League group stage, when they lost both matches against West Ham United. For this final they will be without Japanese attacker Yuito Suzuki, sidelined with a broken collarbone, but club captain Christian Günter has insisted they are not in Istanbul simply to make up the numbers.
Manager Julian Schuster took over from Christian Streich in the summer of 2024 after Streich’s 13-year tenure — a period that included a relegation, an immediate promotion, four top-seven finishes and a German Cup runners-up medal. Schuster, a former club captain, led Freiburg to fifth place in his maiden campaign, and this final represents his first foray into Europe as a head coach. The club, now 122 years old, has never won a major trophy in its history; its highest Bundesliga finish was third in 1995, and it has been relegated four times, earning immediate promotion back on three occasions.
Emery’s Europa League mastery
Unai Emery knows no tournament better than this one. He is the most successful coach in Europa League history, with a record four titles — three with Sevilla and one with Villarreal. This will be his sixth final in the competition, another record for a manager. Over 115 Europa League games managed he has collected 71 wins, and across 108 games with five different clubs he boasts a 65.74 per cent win ratio. His best win rate, however, is with Aston Villa: 12 wins from 14 games, a remarkable 85.7 per cent.
Emery’s only defeat in a Europa League final came in 2019, when his Arsenal side were beaten by Chelsea. He could have had a fifth title under his belt had that night gone differently. For Villa, his experience is the central pillar of their charge: this is a manager who has shaped his career around this competition, taking charge of more Europa League games than any other coach and turning the tournament into his personal domain.
Should Villa prevail, it would be the first time an English club has won the Europa League in consecutive seasons since Tottenham and Liverpool did so in 1971-72 and 1972-73. The match will be played at the Tupras Stadium in Istanbul, a 42,000-capacity venue that previously hosted the 2019 UEFA Super Cup, where Liverpool beat Chelsea, and which will also stage next season’s Conference League final. The referee is François Letexier of France, with compatriot Jérôme Brisard on VAR.
This will be the first-ever meeting between Freiburg and Aston Villa. The last time a Europa League final featured two teams meeting for the first time was the 2019-20 edition between Sevilla and Internazionale.
How to watch and match details
In the UK, the game will be televised live on TNT Sports 1, with coverage starting at 6pm BST ahead of an 8pm kick-off. TNT Sports subscribers can also stream the contest live via the HBO Max app and website. The European finals are available to all HBO Max subscribers, including those on the ‘Basic with Ads’ plan at £4.99 per month. Sky TV subscribers may be able to link their account to access basic HBO Max for free. Standard Sport’s live blog will follow all the action on matchday.
