Aston Villa secured their first major honour in over 30 years last week, clinching the UEFA Europa League on an unforgettable night in Istanbul.
Goals from Youri Tielemans, Emi Buendía and Morgan Rogers sealed a comprehensive 3-0 victory over German side SC Freiburg in the final at Beşiktaş Park, as the Villans lifted only the second major European trophy in the club’s history.
The last, of course, came back on that famous night in Rotterdam in 1982 when, in the form of Bayern Munich, Villa took on another German outfit playing in a red home kit, while they sported their white change strip.
A first meeting in history with Freiburg unfolded on the banks of the Bosphorus, with a victory for Unai Emery’s men taking Villa’s all-time record against German opposition to five wins and two defeats from seven meetings.
On Turkish soil, meanwhile, the Villans have now contested five competitive fixtures, winning three, drawing one and losing one.
Unai Emery
For manager Emery, the most successful manager in Europe League history, the triumph represented another remarkable achievement.
The Villa boss extended his record to five titles in his record-stretching sixth final in the competition, and is now level with Giovanni Trapattoni, Carlo Ancelotti and José Mourinho for European final wins.
Indeed, after the current Brazil head coach, Emery became only the second manager to win a major European competition five times, after clinching the Europa League with a record third different club and first outside of Spain.
Elsewhere, he became just the second manager after Mourinho to take charge of four different clubs in major European finals, having already done so in the Europa League with Sevilla, Arsenal and Villarreal.
Emi Buendía
After Youri Tielemans’ stunner had put the Villans ahead in Istanbul, Buendía’s peach on the stroke of half-time sent them in at the break with a comfortable two-goal advantage.
That goal meant that, among Premier League players in 2025/26, only Liverpool's Dominik Szoboszlai (seven) scored more goals from outside the penalty area in all competitions than Buendía’s five.
Overall, with 20, Villa scored more goals from outside the box than any other Premier League side in all competitions this season since the Club World Cup over the summer of 2025.
And, having added to his goal in the first half with an assist after the break, the Argentine ended the season as the competition’s top goal contributor. UEFA’s Player of the Match in the final notched four goals and registered a further six assists in just 12 starts, including one of each in Istanbul.
Morgan Rogers
The player he set up for Villa’s third goal just before the hour mark, Morgan Rogers, also notched his fourth goal of the tournament, earning him UEFA’s Europa League Player of the Season award.
He and Buendía were two of four Villa players – the most of any side in the competition – to be named in the tournament’s Team of the Season, alongside goalkeeper Emi Martínez and captain John McGinn.
And that wasn’t the only thing Rogers and Buendía shared, as they became only the second set of teammates to both score and assist in a Europa League final after Eden Hazard and Olivier Giroud for Chelsea against Emery’s Arsenal in 2019, after Rogers’ dinked ball across the box had set up Tielemans’ opener.
Rogers also became the youngest Englishman, at 23 years and 298 days old, to score in a major European final since Steven Gerrard for Liverpool against Alavés in the 2001 UEFA Cup final (20y 351d).
Unai Emery
Overall, the Villans won 13 matches in the Europa League proper this campaign, the joint-most of any winning team in the tournament's 17-year history under its current guise, with the exception of qualifiers.
This record saw them ensure they still have the most wins of any side in European competitions since start of the 2023/24 campaign (27), which will be levelled by Paris Saint-Germain this weekend should they defeat Arsenal in Saturday's Champions League final. Villa's 17 clean sheets in that time is bettered only by the Gunners.
With nine clean sheets and only eight goals conceded in their 15 Europa League games this season, Villa shipped an average of just 0.54 per game, while finishing the campaign as the competition’s top scorers with 31, averaging over two goals per match.
Their seven goals from corners this season was also the most in the competition, having been added to by Tielemans in the final, while they averaged 53.6% possession and an impressive 86.47% passing accuracy throughout the term.
Morgan Rogers Ollie Watkins John McGinn
With five goals apiece, McGinn and Ollie Watkins ended the season as Villa’s joint top scorers in this year’s Europa League, tying level with John Deehan and Stan Collymore as the club’s highest-ever goalscorers in the competition.
Indeed, with 11 goals each, the Villa pair are also now tied as the club’s all-time leading goalscorers in all European competitions.
On the topic of individuals, Pau Torres became only the fifth player in history to play in two Europa League finals with two different clubs under the same manager, after lifting the trophy with Emery at Villarreal in 2021.
Tammy Abraham became only the second player in history after Emerson Palmieri to win all three major European competitions, after triumphing in the Champions League with Chelsea – in the same team as the Italian left-back – and the Conference League with AS Roma.
The Blues’ Conference League win last season also saw Jadon Sancho clinch European silverware, which he did again this time around. Having represented Borussia Dortmund in the 2023/24 Champions League final, the winger ensured he represented three different clubs in all three different major European competitions in successive years. Leon Bailey, meanwhile, became the first Jamaican in history to lift the Europa League trophy.
Tammy Abraham
And, while making history of their own in Türkiye, Villa’s win in the final also meant English sides have prevailed in the UEFA Cup/Europa League in consecutive seasons for the first time in 53 years, when Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool won the first two editions of the UEFA Cup, Spurs indeed defeating Manchester United in last year’s final in Bilbao.
Of the 11 meetings between English sides and German sides in major European finals, English teams have now triumphed in nine, with the last German outfit to beat a team from English shores Bayern Munich, when defeating Leeds United in the 1975 European Cup final.
Aston Villa UEFA Europa League trophy
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