Key events
19 min: Tielemans plays a defence-splitter down the middle. The only problem is, Buendia and Watkins leave it to each other. Keeper’s!
17 min: … so it’s another free kick from the same place out on the right. Again it’s half cleared. This time the ball drops to Höfler, who drags a poor shot from the edge of the box wide right. Villa are fortunate Ginter couldn’t get a touch on the ball to divert it goalwards.
15 min: Digne grapples Manzambi to the floor, and is fortunate not to see yellow, given what happened earlier to Treu. The free kick is sent into the Villa box from the right and cleared. Buendia competes for a high ball with Beste, who goes down having caught a trailing arm in the mush. Buendia goes into the book.
13 min: “It’s 13/15 on the quiz for me, Scott,” reports Simon McMahon. “If Villa don’t do it tonight, I’m sure that will at least be of some comfort to them and their fans. They’ve got ‘Super’ John McGinn, though, so I think it’ll be celebrations all round come full time.”
… and to illustrate that, McGinn, dropping deep to quarterback, spins and sprays a fine pass down the left to release Watkins into acres of space. It’s a shame Watkins’ attempted cutback goes nowhere near a white shirt. Freiburg clear.
11 min: Emi Martinez and his finger have outlasted Jimmy Rimmer by a good two minutes and counting.
10 min: Lindelof plays a cute pass down the inside-left channel for Rogers, who takes a touch infield and curls a shot towards the top right. Just wide, but not by much, and Atubolu was backpedaling in a panic there.
9 min: Höfler slightly scuffs a backpass down the Villa left, nearly letting Watkins in. Atubolu is forced to rush to the edge of his box and blooter out for a throw. From which …
7 min: Now it’s Freiburg’s turn to go long. Grifo launches long, and Matanović barges into Konsa. The whistle goes. This game already feels like it’s got goals in it.
5 min: McGinn spins Treu down the right touchline, and is crudely rugby-tackled around the waist by the Freiburg left-back. Treu becomes the first name in the referee’s notebook. “Thanks for sharing David Lacey’s write-up of the 1982 final,” begins Alex Adams. “Wonderfully old-school Graun, right down to only having to wait until the sixth word for a typo. Lovely stuff.” We aim to plese.
3 min: Watkins chases after a long ball down the middle. He takes it down and, after a bit of a grapple, gets the better of Lienhart. He’s clear … but he then tops his shot, the ball rolling softly into the arms of Atubolu. And then the flag goes up for offside anyway.
2 min: Now it’s Villa’s turn to attack, and Rogers is sent into space down the right by Tielemans. He creams a low diagonal drive towards the bottom left, and Atubolu gets down to parry clear with a strong hand.
Aston Villa get the ball rolling … and are quickly pushed back by Freiburg, a ball coming in from the right, Matanović flashing a header wide. The German side making it immediately known that they don’t intend to just make up the numbers.
The teams are out! Freiburg are the home team for administrative purposes, so they get to wear their first-choice European kit of red. That means Aston Villa will play in white. Which is exactly what they wore against the red-shirted Bayern Munich in 1982. The good omens just keep on coming. A sensational atmosphere at Beşiktaş Park in Istanbul as Vincenzo Grifo and John McGinn swap pennants and pleasantries. Not long now!
Unai Emery speaks to TNT Sports: “Definitely very normal routine [today] … analyse our performance … analyse our opponent … respect them a lot … now we focus … everywhere the fans travel with us … today is a special day for them … we do this for them … they enjoy it with heart … respect Europe … respect the opponent … completely focus in our game-plan … our personality … our identity … the players in the bench must have a good impact … we have options.”
… and hopefully we won’t have to reference Jimmy Rimmer again this evening. Here’s Ben Fisher …
The teams have just been read aloud and Emi Martinez’s name was the first to receive a massive cheer. At the end of the team news, Unai Emery’s name is also given a huge reception.
David Lacey – one of the genuine greats of sportswriting – was in Rotterdam to see Villa win the aforementioned 1982 European Cup final. Here’s his report, in glorious new-fangled click-o-vision. (Thanks to the Guardian Research Department for sorting!)
Pre-match postbag. “Villa fan at the stadium. Both sets of fans have been fantastic. Brilliant venue on the river (apart from the capacity). Dying of nerves. Just win. They’re good. We should be better but in a one-off game we’ve proven to be brilliant and … v Spurs. I hope this is a stop in the journey up with Unai but being a Villa fan you always have that fear” – David Bertram
“It’s the edge of the Black Forest versus the gateway to the Black Country, the Breisgauern against the Brummies, Germany’s eco-friendly Green City facing England’s Second City! Breisgau-Brum Bash by the Bosphorus!” – Peter Oh (but you’d guessed that already, hadn’t you)
“The quiz about English teams in European finals led me to reflect. As a boy/teenager I supported every English team in a European final – yes, even Man Utd in 1968. Now, not so much: in fact I’m not sure I want any of the English teams playing over the next few days to win. Is that because
(a) I’m bitter because my team has never won anything, so I don’t want other English teams to win? Probably.
(b) supporting a team for so many years means you build up grievances against virtually every other team (don’t get me started on Derby 1983)? Almost certainly.
(c) have I just become a grumpy old curmudgeon? Let’s not go there.
Has anyone else observed this phenomenon?” – Richard Hirst
Jimmy Rimmer de nos jours latest. “Martinez has gone down the tunnel,” reports Ben Fisher. “The other GKs are still warming up, though GKs usually head in early, don’t they?”
Hmm. So much for that panic being over.
Villa have form for goalkeeper woes in European finals. Jimmy Rimmer went into the 1982 European Cup final with a sore neck, having taken a whack in training a couple of days before the match. He lasted nine minutes before giving way to 23-year-old substitute goalie Nigel Spink, who went on to have the match of his life. So all won’t be lost should the worst happen to Martinez …
… though our man on the spot, Ben Fisher, has just reported that “the glove is now back on and he’s practising claiming crosses from coaches and the other goalkeepers.” So panic over, for now at least.
Some concerning news for Villa, as keeper Emi Martinez appears to have a problem with his right hand. Our man in Istanbul, Ben Fisher, reports.
Emi Martinez may have an issue here: Villa’s goalkeeping coach, Javi Garcia, has just spent the past couple of minutes taping one of Martinez’s fingers and now the Argentinian World Cup winner is continuing to warm up with his right goalie glove in his left hand. He looks very mobile, but it doesn’t seem ideal.
This is the first time Aston Villa and Freiburg have met. Precedent enthusiasts must therefore look to previous matches against teams from the opponents’ country. Villa have won their last two meetings against teams from Germany, having beaten Bayern Munich and Leipzig during the group phase of last season’s Champions League. And of course they’ll always have Rotterdam, where they saw off Bayern in the 1982 final. As for Freiburg, they’ve played four matches against English opposition … and all of them were against West Ham in the 2023-24 Europa League! They went down 1-2 and 0-2 in the groups, won the first leg of a round-of-16 tie 1-0, then lost the second leg 0-5. So it’s advantage Villa.
… so that’s the same Villa XI that started the second-leg win over Nottingham Forest, and last Friday’s evisceration of Liverpool. Not a huge surprise: Villa scored four goals in both of those matches. Viktor Lindelof keeps his place in midfield, and that keeps Amadou Onana on the bench.
The teams
Freiburg: Atubolu, Kübler, Ginter, Lienhart, Treu, Eggestein, Höfler, Beste, Manzambi, Grifo, Matanovic.
Subs: Müller, Huth, Jung, Osterhage, Scherhant, Höler, Irié, Philipp, Günter, Makengo, Rosenfelder, Ogbus.
Aston Villa: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Torres, Digne, Lindelof, Rogers, Tielemans, Buendia, McGinn, Watkins.
Subs: Bizot, Wright, Mings, Elliott, Garcia, Abraham, Sancho, Luiz, Maatsen, Onana, Bogarde, Bailey.
Referee: François Letexier (France)
VAR: Jérôme Brisard (France)
Matty Cash – sporting a lovely tracksuit top with delicious 1982 Villa roundel – speaks to TNT Sports. “Really loud … full of Villans everywhere … really excited … I’m sure they’ll be really loud all night … such a fantastic club … finally got itself back in European football … we’ve got a great opportunity to give the fans what they deserve, a trophy back to Villa Park … we know what a big test it is … we’re playing a really competitive team … we believe in [Unai Emery] … we watched one video today and one last night … it was an hour and a half, though!”
This is a huge match for Aston Villa all right … but for SC Freiburg, this represents the biggest occasion in the club’s entire 121-year history. Freiburg have never won a major trophy – runners-up in the 2022 German cup final is as close as they’ve come – so simply getting here is a huge achievement for Julian Schuster and his team. Andy Brassell runs the rule over the folk in Aston Villa’s way.
Unai Emery is hoping to make it five wins from six Europa League final appearances tonight. Here’s his story so far.
Q: Do you have time to kill before kick-off?
A: Yes.
Preamble
Aston Villa have won two European trophies in their history. And no we’re not counting the Intertoto Cup. Dignity, my friends, dignity. The first, and quite obviously the most special, is the 1982 European Cup, inspired by Ron Saunders but actually won by Tony Barton and Peter Withe. You can relive, rediscover or just read about that with David Lacey’s match report …
… and Ben Fisher’s nostalgic chat with the players.
A glorious victory that will never get old. Though is it as downright hilarious as their dismantling in the Super Cup the following year of Barcelona, who in the 1980s were a rugged shower of galoots and hoodlums?
No of course it’s not. Glory days. But it’s long past the time Villa had another major European victory to celebrate. Can they turn Istanbul into Astonbul? They’re favourites to beat Freiburg tonight, and it doesn’t harm that their boss, Unai Emery, is also the guvnor of the Europa League, having won it four times already for Sevilla and Villarreal. Can John McGinn join Dennis Mortimer and Ken McNaught in hoisting some continental silver for the Villa? We’ll find out soon enough. Kick-off at Beşiktaş Stadyumu is at 8pm BST. It’s on!
