2025/26 Europa League: Meet the winners

Aston Villa have won their first continental title since winning the 1981/82 European Cup.

Celebrate the 2025/26 UEFA Europa League winners' glorious campaign.

Aston Villa (ENG)

League phase position: 2
Round of 16: 3-0agg vs Lille
Quarter-finals: 7-1agg vs Bologna
Semi-finals: 4-1agg vs Nottingham Forest
Final: 3-0 vs Freiburg
UEFA coefficient ranking: 19*
Last season: Champions League quarter-finals (L4-5agg vs Paris)
Best previous UEFA Cup/Europa League performance: Quarter-finals (1977/78, 1997/98)

European Cup winners in 1981/82, Villa reached the semi-finals of the 2023/24 Conference League and the final eight of last season's Champions League, before winning against Freiburg in their first continental final in 44 years. Coach Unai Emery has now won the Europa League five times – three times with Sevilla and once each with Villarreal and Villa – and is the most successful coach in the competition's history.

Campaign trail: Until the semi-finals, Aston Villa's path ran smoothly. Seven wins from eight were enough to wrap up second spot in the league phase, before Lille and Bologna were dispatched in the last 16 and quarter-finals. English rivals Nottingham Forest provided a sizeable bump in the road in the semi-finals, but a 1-0 first-leg defeat was cancelled out with a 4-0 success in Birmingham. Freiburg, meanwhile, found them too hot to handle in the final in Istanbul.
– John Atkin, Aston Villa reporter

How they played: Unai Emery very rarely deviated from the fluid 4-2-3-1 formation that has brought him so much success since his arrival at Villa Park in November 2022. Villa proved tough to break down, not least because of the occasional heroics of goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez and unheralded defender Ezri Konsa, and kept nine clean sheets in the competition. Morgan Rogers, Youri Tielemans and John McGinn were the chief creators going forward, with McGinn and Ollie Watkins both scoring five goals each.
– John Atkin, Aston Villa reporter

Star players: Ollie Watkins said he was "playing with fire in my belly" since being left out of England's squad in March, but Villa's most impressive performer was arguably captain fantastic John McGinn. The Scot joined the side when they were in the second tier and has been a driving force in getting them to where they are today, his exalted standing only growing amid an injury layoff this season. He did not add to his five-goal tally in the final but delivered an assist for Emiliano Buendía to hit the Villans' second.
– John Atkin, Aston Villa reporter

* accurate at the time of kick-off