BIRMINGHAM: Aston Villa thumped fellow English club Nottingham Forest 4-0 to reach the Europa League final where they will be up against Freiburg, who beat Braga 3-1 at home in the other semi-final on Thursday.

John McGinn scored a brace for Villa in the second leg of their all-English semi-final on Wednesday for a 4-1 aggregate victory as they chase a first trophy in 30 years.

The decider will be staged in in Istanbul on May 20 after the Bundesliga team edged Braga 4-3 on aggregate.

Trailing 1-0 from the first leg, Unai Emery’s side came out all guns blazing at a pulsating Villa Park and got the lead their dominance deserved in the 36th minute when Watkins tapped in following brilliant footwork from Emiliano Buendia.

Thirteen minutes into the second half, Buendia got Villa’s second with a coolly-struck penalty after Nikola Milenkovic needlessly tugged Pau Torres’ shirt in the area.

Captain McGinn swept in carbon-copy goals in the 77th and 80th minutes to spark delirium amongst most of the 43,000 fans, including Villa-supporting Prince William.

Villa were European champions in 1982 and last won silverware when they lifted the League Cup in 1996.

They will hope four-times Europa League winner Emery can add to his tally — for the first time with an English club.

“There’s no better manager than this to get us prepared for this game and obviously take us into the final as well,” said goalscorer Watkins, whose head was bandaged for most of the game after an early clash. “His track record speaks for itself. We’re in a great position. We need to go there and win now.”

Emery’s unmatched four Europe League wins as a manager include three with Sevilla and one with Villarreal.

Buendia said the extraordinary atmosphere at Villa Park — one of the best most fans could remember — played a huge part in enabling Villa to dominate the game.

“They were a 12th man,” he said. “We’ve shown all season how well we can play, and we did it today, we deserved this.”

Apart from one early shot by Omari Hutchinson, Forest went down tamely, managing only two shots on target to Villa’s 10.

Villa’s fellow Midlands side Forest — also European champions, in 1979 and 1980 — have also been waiting a long time for a trophy since their League Cup win in 1990.

In truth, though, they were utterly outplayed on the night by a team 11 places above them in the Premier League.

Meanwhile on Thursday, Lukas Kuebler scored in each half as Freiburg reached only their second major final in their history, after the 2022 German Cup.

Freiburg trailed by a goal from the opening leg but were given a leg up after seven minutes when Mario Dorgeles of Braga received a straight red card.

Kuebler’s opener and Johan Manzambi’s brilliant effort had the hosts 2-0 up and one ahead in the tie by half-time. Kuebler add­ed another in the second-half. Pau Victor pulled one back for Braga late, Freiburg held on to reach a first European final.

Goalscorer Kuebler said the result was a “dream come true” and thanked the home fans.

“The atmosphere was unbelievable throughout — the fans carried us.”

Freiburg have never won a major trophy nor qualified for the Champions League but could do both with a win over Villa.

Freiburg defender Matthias Ginter, who won the 2014 World Cup with Germany, said Thursday’s game was “the most important home match in the club’s history”, but called on his side to go one better in the final.

“And now we’ve got the biggest match in the club’s history — and we’re going to give it a real go.”

The defeat ended Braga’s hopes of returning to the Europa League final for the first time since 2011, when they lost 1-0 to domestic rivals Porto.

PALACE SET UP CONFERENCE LEAGUE DECIDER AGAINST RAYO

In the Conference League last-four clashes on Thursday, English outfit Crystal Palace and Spanish side Rayo Vallecano reached their maiden European final.

Palace soared into the final with a 2-1 win over Shakhtar Donetsk, completing an emphatic 5-2 aggregate triumph, while Rayo registered a narrow 1-0 victory over Strasbourg in France in the second leg for a 2-0 aggregate success.

Both sides will look to add the historic European title to their trophy cabinet when the face off in Leipzig on May 27.

Palace’s victory over the exiled Ukra­inian team in the second leg was made possible thanks to an own goal from Pedro Henrique and an Ismaila Sarr strike.

“We always talked before, this is why when we were little boys we always wanted to become professional football players, and told the players this is the reward we get, and this is the reward you can’t buy,” Palace boss Olivier Glasner told TNT Sports.

“I said this after the FA Cup final (in 2025). Now we’re playing the next final together, so it’s amazing what this group of players are doing for Crystal Palace.”

Meanwhile, Rayo travelled to France with a slim lead to defend after a solitary goal by Alemao last week in Madrid, and the Brazilian striker scored again late in the first half here as the visitors ran out deserving winners at the Stade de la Meinau.

The team from the sprawling Vallecas neighbourhood in the south of the Spanish capital have never really been a regular presence in La Liga and their only Euro­pean campaign before this season came in 2000/01 when under Juande Ramos they got to the UEFA Cup quarter-finals.

Nevertheless, the team coached by Inigo Perez, a former assistant to Andoni Iraola before the latter moved to Bournemouth, were widely seen as the outsiders against Strasbourg and ultimately ran out worthy victors.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2026