Aston Villa 4-0 Nottingham Forest (agg 4-1) highlights: John McGinn double crowns Aston Villa's progress to Europa League final

John McGinn and Emiliano Buendía inspired Aston Villa as they turned their UEFA Europa League semi-final around, beating Nottingham Forest 4-0 on the night and 4-1 on aggregate to set up a final with Freiburg in Istanbul.

Match in brief: Rampant Villa roar back

Although Omari Hutchinson curled just wide early on for the visitors, it was Villa who made most of the running initially without threatening much. Pau Torres forced Stefan Ortega to tip over the bar, Youri Tielemans nodded wide and Ollie Watkins' header was easily held.

But after Tielemans went close from long range, the hosts took the lead their endeavours merited. Emiliano Buendía's quick feet took him past Jair Cunha and Elliot Anderson and allowed him to cut back for Watkins to break the deadlock.

Ollie Watkins taps in from close range to put Aston Villa ahead before the breakAston Villa FC via Getty Images

Villa continued with the same intensity after the restart and were awarded a penalty when Nikola Milenković pulled Torres' shirt. Up stepped Buendía, whose finish was emphatic as he steered past Ortega to edge Unai Emery's side ahead overall.

From there, two quick goals from John McGinn finished the contest as Villa sealed their place in a first major UEFA final since 1982. First, the club captain bent in a lovely left-footed effort from Watkins' pass and then, three minutes later, finished from a similar position after receiving from Morgan Rogers.

Emiliano Buendía converts the penalty that put Villa ahead in the tie for the first timeUEFA via Getty Images

Each strike was met with more euphoria than the last as Villa's dominant performance took them one step away from what could become their third European trophy.

John Atkin, match reporter

Recent inconsistent performances had sown some doubt among the Claret and Blue faithful, but they were consummately blown away from the moment Ollie Watkins cancelled out the first-leg deficit. Forest dug in, but once they fell 2-1 down on aggregate they had to throw caution to the wind and Villa capitalised. Europa League master Unai Emery is one game away from title number five. Istanbul beckons.

John McGinn scores the first of his two goals to give Aston Villa a cushion at 3-0Aston Villa FC via Getty Images

Reaction

Ollie Watkins, Aston Villa forward: "It's amazing, amazing. We were very passive in the first leg. They've got some good players and to be fair, they deserved to win. But it was always going to be difficult for them here at Villa Park. We've been looking forward to this for a week. Everyone's mind was on this game tonight."

Unai Emery, Aston Villa coach: "I'm so, so proud of how we played the match. It's something special to play a final in Istanbul and we can feel proud of how we achieved it, and now enjoy it, enjoy the process, enjoy the final; enjoy preparing the game, respecting the competition, respecting the final, respecting Freiburg."

Emiliano Buendía, Aston Villa midfielder: "Obviously it was one of the most decisive penalties in the club's history but I didn't feel pressure. I felt calm and I knew 100 per cent what I wanted to do. To win a trophy for this club, with its history, would be amazing."

John McGinn, Aston Villa captain: "I'm normally quite calm before games but the pressure today was intense. I think this group of players deserved to go one step further. I was nervous but tonight was up there with one of the best performances I've seen from a Villa team here in a long time. There were great celebrations at the end but we've still got one game to go."

Vitor Pereira, Nottingham Forest coach: "To compete in a semi-final against this kind of team, we needed everyone in the right condition and if you looked before the game, we had three players on the bench because of injuries. I'm proud of my players because they tried everything but they didn't have the conditions to compete in this game."

Key stats

• Aston Villa, the 1982 European Cup winners, are through to their second major UEFA final. The Villans have not won a major trophy since 1996, losing four cup finals since.
• Villa are the tenth different English club to reach the UEFA Cup/Europa League final.
• Unai Emery's side have won 18 of their last 20 European matches (D1 L1), including the last ten.
• Emery has won six Europa League semi-final ties in a row since losing in the last four of the 2011/12 competition with Valencia.
• Villa have won seven of their 11 European ties in which they lost the first leg away by a one‑goal margin.

Line-ups

Aston Villa: Martínez; Lindelöf (Bogarde 74), Konsa, Pau Torres (Douglas Luiz 90); Cash, McGinn, Buendia (Sancho 86), Tielemans, Digne; Watkins, Rogers (Mings 90)

Nottingham Forest: Ortega; Jair Cunha (Murillo 88), Milenković, Morato (Bakwa 71), Williams; Hutchinson (Sinclair 88), Dominguez, Anderson, McAtee (Yates 46); Igor Jesus; Wood (Lucca 71)