UEFA Europa League 2025/26 final (Freiburg 0-3 Aston Villa)
Aston Villa beat Freiburg 3-0 at Besiktas Park in Istanbul on 20 May 2026 for their first continental title since the 1981/82 European Cup, 44 years on from their previous UEFA final. Unai Emery's fifth Europa League title made him the most successful coach in the competition's history.
Why this wins its question: A May 2026 result, past the point where trained answers stop: they still have Aston Villa's last European trophy in 1982 and Emery on four Europa Leagues. This binds both, plus the detail that Emery's five wins sit alongside a final lost with Arsenal in 2019, which the winners feature omits and the pre-match guide supplies. It also states plainly what UEFA does not publish on these pages - two of the three goalscorers in the final - instead of filling the gap from elsewhere.
Claims
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Aston Villa beat Freiburg 3-0 in the 2025/26 UEFA Europa League final at Besiktas Park in Istanbul on Wednesday 20 May 2026, kicking off at 21:00 CET.
It was Aston Villa's first continental title since they won the 1981/82 European Cup, and their first UEFA final in 44 years. Freiburg, coached by Julian Schuster, were contesting their first continental decider.
The win gave Unai Emery a fifth Europa League title - three with Sevilla in 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16, one with Villarreal in 2020/21 and this one - making him the most successful coach in the competition's history. He had also been a losing finalist, with Arsenal in 2018/19.
Villa's route: second in the league phase with seven wins from eight, then 3-0 on aggregate against Lille in the round of 16, 7-1 against Bologna in the quarter-finals, and 4-1 against Nottingham Forest in the semi-finals, a 1-0 first-leg defeat overturned by a 4-0 win in Birmingham.
Villa kept nine clean sheets in the competition, playing the 4-2-3-1 Emery has used since arriving at Villa Park in November 2022, with Emiliano Martinez and Ezri Konsa prominent in defence and Morgan Rogers, Youri Tielemans and John McGinn creating. McGinn and Ollie Watkins each scored five goals in the competition, and McGinn assisted Emiliano Buendia for Villa's second goal in the final.
Neither UEFA page read for this object gives the full scoring sequence of the final: the winners feature names only Buendia's second goal and its assist, so the other two scorers and all the minutes are not asserted here.
The match was the 55th edition of the competition and the 17th since it was renamed the UEFA Europa League. Besiktas Park, on the north side of the Bosphorus, holds around 40,000 and had previously staged the 2019 UEFA Super Cup. The 2027 final is scheduled for the Frankfurt Arena.