Best games of 2025/26 Europa League: Which was your favourite?

The 2025/26 UEFA Europa League has provided goals galore, surprise results and no end of drama as the field of 36 was whittled down to two finalists: Freiburg and Aston Villa.

Take a look through UEFA.com's selection of the best games and choose your favourite.

Nottingham Forest 2-3 Midtjylland, league phase 

Forest's first European home game in 29 years ended in disappointment as Danish outfit Midtjylland edged a thriller at the City Ground. Ousmane Diao opened the scoring for the visitors in the 18th minute by latching onto a free-kick to poke in, but Forest were level within four minutes through Dan Ndoye.

Midtjylland hit back as Mads Bech converted from a corner, and in the 88th minute Valdemar Andreasen raced through and coolly slotted past the goalkeeper, with Chris Wood's added-time penalty just a consolation for the hosts.

Salzburg 2-3 Ferencváros, league phase

Robbie Keane's Ferencváros narrowly won an action-packed contest in Austria despite falling behind early on to an Edmund Baidoo strike from just outside the box. Barnabás Varga missed a golden opportunity to equalise as his penalty was well kept out by Salzburg goalkeeper Alexander Schlager, but the striker was not to be denied in the 50th minute as he converted from a pinpoint Bence Ötvös cross.

Ferencváros then scored two more goals in the next eight minutes through a Kristoffer Zachariassen header and a Bamidele Yusuf strike, and although a 72nd-minute reply from Yorbe Vertessen set up a grandstand finish, the Hungarian champions did just enough to see out the victory.

Braga 3-4 Genk, league phase

Belgian side Genk triumphed in a topsy-turvy encounter in Portugal during their pursuit of automatic qualification. A fierce piledriver from Rodrigo Zalazar put Braga into the lead, but the visitors levelled on the stroke of half-time, Daan Heymans heading in from a corner.

Yira Sor completed the turnaround with a fine solo goal early in the second half and Hyeongyu Oh smashed in to increase the advantage just before the hour. Zalazar did get his second of the evening with 20 minutes to go, but Kevin Medina curled home to restore Genk's two-goal lead just seconds after the restart, Fran Navarro's late scrambled effort not enough to prevent Braga's first defeat of the league phase.

FCSB 4-3 Feyenoord, league phase

"Only FCSB could play such a game!" said match winner Florin Tǎnase after the final whistle in Bucharest. "We played against a very powerful team and everyone favoured them. It's a historic match for me."

It was one that seemed to have got away from Elias Charalambous' side; FCSB took the lead early but six minutes into the second half they were 3-1 down. Feyenoord, though, were rattled by a quick response, and FCSB kept pushing after Mamdou Thiam's 87th-minute equaliser. Five minutes into added time, Juri Cisotti won back the ball, took it into the danger zone and crossed for Tǎnase to hit the winner.

Bologna 2-2 Celtic, league phase

Back for his second spell as Celtic caretaker manager this season, Martin O'Neill was left with a headache in his side's Matchday 7 game in Italy. Reo Hatate scavenged the Bhoys' early opener but was then sent off for a second bookable offence on 34 minutes. Despite Austen Trusty doubling the lead from a corner before the interval, the second half was to be an ordeal.

Vincenzo Italiano's Bologna hammered on the door relentlessly; Thijs Dallinga pulled one back before the hour, and when Englishman Jonathan Rowe scored a sizzling second from distance with 18 minutes to go, it looked grim for Celtic. However, they resisted stoutly to the delight of their 73-year-old boss, who said: "It was breathless and I still am [breathless], but it was a magnificent effort."

Aston Villa 3-2 Salzburg, league phase

Kadan Young set up Jamaldeen Jimoh-Aloba for a late winner as a youthful Villa side justified Unai Emery's faith with a second-half rally in their final league phase game. Salzburg had caught the Premier League side cold, taking a deserved 2-0 lead early in the second half.

Villa burst into life after that, though; Morgan Rogers brought them back into contention and Tyrone Mings headed them level with 14 minutes to go. Fresh off the bench, 20-year-old Young then set up 19-year-old Jimoh-Aloba for the decisive goal. "The way we reacted was fantastic," said a proud Emery, whose side sealed the top-two spot he coveted.

Roma 3-4aet Bologna (agg: 4-5), round of 16 second leg

This all-Italian tie more than lived up to expectations. After a 1-1 draw in the first leg in Bologna, another Rowe stunner put the visitors ahead in the Stadio Olimpico 22 minutes in, only for Evan N'Dicka to reply for Roma with a header from a corner.

Federico Bernardeschi's penalty on the stroke of half-time and Santiago Castro's fizzing strike looked to have won it for Bologna, but once again Roma fought back, Donyell Malen scoring from the spot and Lorenzo Pellegrini's curling effort forcing extra time. It was I Rossoblù who had the final say, though, substitute Nicolò Cambiaghi latching onto a through ball and finishing at the near post to settle a pulsating encounter.

Freiburg 3-0 Celta, quarter-final first leg

The Baden-Württemberg side ended the campaign on a Europa League record-equalling 11-match winning run at home, and this was perhaps the best of the lot. The visitors were fancied to come through the tie but weren't given a sniff by a Freiburg team on a mission; the hosts were ahead inside ten minutes when Vincenzo Grifo added another memorable goal to his collection.

Jan-Niklas Beste's tap-in and a Matthias Ginter header left Celta with a mountain to climb – substitute Lucas Höler also hit the woodwork late on. "The lads defended so, so well," said Freiburg boss Julian Schuster. "At the other end, they linked up well and were always dangerous." Remarkably, his team scored three again seven days later to wrap up a 6-1 aggregate win.

Real Betis 2-4 Braga (agg: 3-5), quarter-final second leg

After a 1-1 draw in Portugal, the ball seemed to be very much in Real Betis' court, and when goals from Antony and Abde Ezzalzouli gave the hosts a 2-0 lead in Seville, it looked to be tie over.

Pau Victor then pulled one back with Braga's first shot on target, Vitor Carvalho headed in after the break, and a Ricardo Horta penalty and a Jean-Baptiste Gorby volley gave Carlos Vicens' side an entirely unexpected win. "Betis were all over us and almost got a third," said Pau Victor. "But ... we showed our [true] face and changed the dynamic."

Aston Villa 4-0 Nottingham Forest (agg: 4-1), semi-final second leg

"It was a special night," Villa captain John McGinn said amid frenzied full-time celebrations in Birmingham. "We felt the pressure, the expectation was high. But what a performance, right from the first minute! Tense, aggressive and with quality at the end." Ollie Watkins' opening goal, cancelling out the visitors' hard-fought first-leg advantage, was all of the above.

Emiliano Buendía's snake hips teed up that goal, and the Argentinian added the second himself from the penalty spot. Villa Park was rocking as it had never rocked before – Ozzy Osbourne concerts aside – and it rocked some more when McGinn added two more late on to seal a place in the final. "A special day," surmised coach Unai Emery, a four-time winner of this title.