Some are calling it Astonbul. It is also part of the Villa trilogy. And not, though Unai Emery has flagged it up, Aston Villa’s progress to the quarter-finals of three different European competitions in as many seasons. But having won the Europa League with Sevilla and Villarreal, now he could do likewise with the Villa as they face Freiburg in Istanbul.
A fifth Europa League crown would cement Emery’s status as the Carlo Ancelotti of this competition; only Giovanni Trapattoni has won it more than twice, but that was in a different era when, with a solitary club per country qualifying automatically for the European Cup, the Uefa Cup was arguably the hardest to claim. Emery’s first four triumphs came in the time when teams dropped out of the Champions League – his Sevilla among them in 2015-16 – to render the competition in the secondary competition tougher.
Emery can win as an underdog – the knockout stages in 2021, besides his Villarreal, featured Arsenal, Tottenham, AC Milan, Roma, Ajax and the runners-up Manchester United – and now could do so as favourites.
But when this season’s Europa League started, Villa looked the most obvious winners. Partly due to Emery’s pedigree, but as a side who reached the last eight of the Champions League months earlier, with Premier League revenues, without the possibility of superpowers dropping down into the Europa League after Christmas.
And yet an obvious success can still be a huge achievement. Emery has a capacity to make history. March brought the 30th anniversary of Villa’s last major silverware. Their fifth and last League Cup was won by names from another era: a young Gareth Southgate, a 36-year-old Paul McGrath. Dwight Yorke was one of the scorers, Andy Townsend the captain.
Since then, Villa have lost four finals: they have suffered as the trophies have tended to be swept up by the same five clubs from Manchester, Merseyside and London. Emery has disrupted their monopoly in other ways, twice qualifying for the Champions League. Europe, which brought Tottenham’s first trophy for 17 years and West Ham’s first for 43, has offered the opportunity for silverware.
For clubs starved of it, the occasion has added meaning. There can be a temptation to see Europa League victories though the prosaic prism of reaching the Champions League; but Villa have already done that in emphatic, euphoric fashion, with Friday’s demolition of Liverpool.
And for a club with seven major honours in the 19th century, Europe forms part of their identity. Indeed, they have beaten foreign opponents on their way to glory long before Uefa was formed. Villa’s first trophy was in 1887; their route to the FA Cup involved beating Wednesbury Old Athletic, Derby Midland, Horncastle, Darwen and Rangers; the more observant may notice a Scottish club was in an English competition.
But the most pertinent comparison will come with 1982. It may be fitting that Villa face German opposition in another final. As they need few reminders, they beat Bayern Munich in the European Cup final 44 years ago. Now it is Freiburg.
They defeated Bayern again, in last season’s Champions League. Emery, as his time at Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal indicates, has never seemed a perfect fit for the superclubs but he can beat them. Freiburg are a different proposition: indeed, there are parallels with some of Emery’s employers, provincial clubs punching above their weight. They came seventh in the Bundesliga, seventh in the Europa League group phase. They had never previously been in a continental quarter-final.
So all the evidence points to a Villa win. The incentive is clear. Captain John McGinn said they would become “legends” with victory in Istanbul. His own journey included a play-off final decider in 2019, taking Villa out of the Championship. He could end up bracketed with Dennis Mortimer, the midfielder who lifted the European Cup 44 years ago.
His has been a remarkable rise, but Emery has been a revolutionary who has had some constants among the change. Seven of the probable starting 11 were signed by either Steve Bruce, Dean Smith or Steven Gerrard. One of the curiosities of Villa is that much of their transfer business under Emery has produced little return: of this season’s many signings, the only success so far is the free transfer Victor Lindelof, who is set to be a makeshift midfielder again in Istanbul.
Lindelof played in Emery’s fourth Europa League win, too: completing 120 minutes for United against Villarreal, scoring their 10th penalty in the shootout before David de Gea missed the 11th. Villarreal’s 10th spot kick in Gdansk was scored by Pau Torres, who has been reunited with Emery in the Midlands.
That two of his four Europa Leagues came on penalties and the other two after going behind in finals shows the resilience required to compile such a record. The Villa faithful had to be resilient, too, in the wilderness years. But now 2026 could be bracketed alongside 1982 in their history, as the European glory years.