{"id":572276,"date":"2026-05-08T03:37:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T03:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/572276\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T03:37:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T03:37:12","slug":"buendia-and-mcginn-the-heroes-as-villa-fire-past-forest-to-reach-europa-league-final-europa-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/572276\/","title":{"rendered":"Buend\u00eda and McGinn the heroes as Villa fire past Forest to reach Europa League final | Europa League"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the end, it was a rout, Aston Villa<\/a> sailing into their first European final since 1982. There were fist pumps from Prince William high in the Trinity Road Stand after Emiliano Buend\u00eda\u2019s penalty approaching the hour put Villa in command of the tie and then pure delirium as John McGinn buried two near-identical first-time finishes inside three minutes to kill the game.<\/p>\n

In between serenading Unai Emery, who is hunting a record fifth Europa League<\/a> title, and drinking in the celebrations, Villa supporters could think about booking flights to Istanbul, where Villa will face Freiburg in search of their first trophy since lifting the League Cup in 1996.<\/p>\n

As V\u00edtor Pereira had acknowledged, Emery is the undisputed king of the Europa League and Villa will be heavy favourites in Turkey against a team seventh in the Bundesliga. \u201cYou can start packing your bags, start looking for your tickets,\u201d was the message from the giddy stadium announcer on what descended into a rather surreal night, an emotional McGinn wearing a look of disbelief as he charged off after adding Villa\u2019s third, the cue for the stewards to line the pitch. McGinn\u2019s second and Villa\u2019s fourth prompted the away end to empty.<\/p>\n

For a depleted Nottingham Forest<\/a>, probably safe in the Premier League after an extraordinary spring, defeat extinguished Evangelos Marinakis\u2019s pre-season hopes of silverware and represented a hard stop to their 10-game unbeaten run. Forest, without Morgan Gibbs-White, were deflated when Villa seized the lead through Ollie Watkins and flattened when Buend\u00eda slotted his spot-kick past Stefan Ortega.<\/p>\n

Quick GuideK\u00fcbler double sends Freiburg past Braga and into finalShow<\/p>\n

Lukas K\u00fcbler scored in each half as Freiburg beat Braga 3-1 at home on Thursday to win 4-3 on aggregate and reach the Europa League final, where they will face Aston Villa.<\/p>\n

Freiburg trailed by a goal from the opening leg but were given a leg up after seven minutes when Braga’s Mario Dorgeles received a straight red card.<\/p>\n

K\u00fcbler’s opener and Johan Manzambi’s brilliant effort had the hosts 2-0 up and one ahead in the tie by half-time. K\u00fcbler added another in the second half.<\/p>\n

Pau V\u00edctor pulled one back for Braga late, but Freiburg held on to reach a first European final.<\/p>\n

K\u00fcbler said the result was a “dream come true” and thanked the home fans. “The atmosphere was unbelievable throughout \u2013 the fans carried us,” he said.<\/p>\n

Freiburg have never won a major trophy nor qualified for the Champions League but could do both with a win over Villa in the final in Istanbul.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Freiburg defender Matthias Ginter, who won the 2014 World Cup with Germany, said the win against Braga was “the most important home match in the club’s history”, but called on his side to go one better in the final.<\/p>\n

“And now we’ve got the biggest match in the club’s history \u2013 and we’re going to give it a real go.” AFP<\/p>\n

Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n

The onus was on Villa to attack Forest given they trailed from the first leg owing to Chris Wood\u2019s penalty. There was a call to arms of sorts from Emery, claret and blue flags on every seat in the home end, and the volume at Villa Park was turned up to 11, in sharp contrast from Sunday\u2019s insipid defeat by Tottenham. Suddenly, and understandably, all was forgotten. There was a supercharged atmosphere fit for the occasion between grand old clubs fighting to reach a European showpiece.<\/p>\n

Emi Buend\u00eda fires in expertly from the spot to give Aston Villa the lead in the tie. Photograph: Darren Staples\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

A little needle was a given. Emiliano Mart\u00ednez, who perhaps perennially will enjoy the role of pantomime villain, shoved Ortega as Forest\u2019s team huddle took place in front of the away end but inside Villa\u2019s half. On the pitch Elliot Anderson, who Emery was adamant should have been sent off for a poor challenge on Watkins in the reverse fixture, exchanged words with Morgan Rogers after the pair clashed. Moises de Hoyo, Villa\u2019s fitness coach, voiced his anger and earned a booking from the Swedish referee, Glenn Nyberg. Nicol\u00e1s Dom\u00ednguez made a hasty challenge on Buend\u00eda and then Morato was booked for a rash challenge on Rogers.<\/p>\n

Villa\u2019s front-foot display was rewarded on 35 minutes when Watkins converted Buend\u00eda\u2019s squared pass. The goal stemmed from a communication mixup between Nikola Milenkovic and Ortega. Jair Cunha hoofed the ball upfield and Youri Tielemans kickstarted the move. Buend\u00eda\u2019s dancing feet bamboozled Forest, the Argentinian wriggling between Anderson and Jair Cunha, and then he looked into the box and spied Watkins, who side-footed home. Villa had lift-off.<\/p>\n

John McGinn scores the second of his quickfire double as Aston Villa ran away with the tie late on in the second leg. Photograph: Dan Mullan\/UEFA\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Pereira, who spent much of the game perched on a drinks box in the away technical area, recognised his side required a dose of Villa\u2019s energy and who better to provide it than Ryan Yates? Yates, who joined Forest as an eight-year-old and is Forest\u2019s answer to Villa\u2019s all-action captain, McGinn, got to work.<\/p>\n

Forest, though, failed to regain their composure and when Milenkovic got hands-on in the box with Pau Torres, he always risked being punished. Milenkovic got to grips with the No 14 on Torres\u2019s shirt after Buend\u00eda crossed for the defender. In truth, Torres made a mess of trapping the ball but, like Lucas Digne last week, there was no room to hide. The locals cheered when the referee was sent to the pitch side video assistant referee monitor and then Nyberg pointed to the spot. Ortega dived to his right but Buend\u00eda\u2019s crisp penalty zipped beyond him and into the corner.<\/p>\n

For a split-second, Villa thought they added a third on the hour when Watkins slotted past Ortega, but Rogers was plainly offside in the buildup. It was an unmarked McGinn who wasted a chance to make it 3-0 when side-footing a tame effort at Ortega from close to the penalty spot and Villa\u2019s skipper knew it, twisting away from the scene in visible frustration. Buend\u00eda poked an effort wide.<\/p>\n

Would Forest rouse? They failed to test Mart\u00ednez and finished with a total of just eight touches in the opposition box. Villa took the initiative to wrap up the game, McGinn placing two shots past Ortega in quick succession. \u201cFour-nil on yer big day out,\u201d crooned the home support as the final whistle loomed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the end, it was a rout, Aston Villa sailing into their first European final since 1982. There…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":572277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-572276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}