Source: AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nIn their first final since losing to Manchester City in the 2020 League Cup, Villa will be firm favourites against unheralded Freiburg, who are seventh in the Bundesliga.<\/p>\n
It is Emery\u2019s sixth Europa League final after winning the competition three times with Sevilla and once with Villarreal, as well as finishing as a runner-up with Arsenal.<\/p>\n
Emery has proved an inspired appointment, the Spaniard having revitalised Villa since taking over when they were languishing three points above the relegation zone in 2022.<\/p>\n
Fifth-placed Villa remain on course to qualify for next season\u2019s Champions League via a top-five finish in the Premier League, but they now have the option of making it via winning the Europa League as well.<\/p>\n
Beaten in the semi-finals by Olympiakos in the 2023\/2024 UEFA Conference League and then Crystal Palace in the FA Cup last season, Villa are one win away from shedding their tag as \u2018nearly men\u2019 who fall short on the big occasion.<\/p>\n
It was a painful end to Forest\u2019s bid to reach a European final for the first time since 1980, leaving them still waiting to end their 36-year trophy drought.<\/p>\n
Forest had arrived unbeaten in their last 10 games, while Villa had lost their previous three and were booed off after defeat at home to lowly Tottenham on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Crucially, Forest were largely subdued with influential playmaker Morgan Gibbs-White only fit enough for the bench after suffering a horrific facial injury last weekend.<\/p>\n
Forest winger Omari Hutchinson curled narrowly wide from the edge of the area in the opening minutes.<\/p>\n
But Villa quickly hit their stride and Pau Torres\u2019 header forced a desperate tip over from Forest keeper Stefan Ortega, who saved Buendia\u2019s low drive soon afterwards.<\/p>\n
Villa\u2019s pressure was rewarded in the 36th minute as Watkins climbed off the canvas to open the scoring.<\/p>\n
Bloodied and bruised but unbowed after a clash of heads with Morato moments earlier, the bandaged Watkins ignored his throbbing skull to slot home from close range after Buendia\u2019s sublime twisting run prised open the Forest defence.<\/p>\n
Villa\u2019s momentum was not interrupted by the halftime interval and their dominance brought a deserved second goal in the 58th minute.<\/p>\n
Nikola Milenkovic rashly pulled Torres\u2019 shirt in the goalmouth and a VAR check awarded a penalty that Buendia calmly drilled past Ortega.<\/p>\n
Chris Wood was denied by a key save by Martinez and McGinn put the result beyond doubt.<\/p>\n
The Scotland midfielder took Watkins\u2019 flick and caressed a fine finish into the far corner from 12 yards in the 77th minute.<\/p>\n
McGinn struck again three minutes later, shooting low past Ortega at the near post to send Villa Park into ecstasy.<\/p>\n
\u2018UNBELIEVABLE\u2019 CRYSTAL PALACE INTO CONFERENCE LEAGUE FINAL<\/b><\/p>\n
Crystal Palace swept past Shakhtar Donetsk 5-2 on aggregate to reach their first-ever European final on Thursday, giving manager Oliver Glasner the chance of a fairytale end to his golden reign.<\/p>\n
The Eagles led 3-1 after the first leg of the UEFA Conference League semi-final and went further ahead in the first half at a crackling Selhurst Park, courtesy of an own goal from Pedro Henrique.<\/p>\n
Eguinaldo levelled but Ismaila Sarr continued his rich vein of form by scoring his ninth goal of the competition early in the second period to make it 2-1 on the night.<\/p>\n
Glasner\u2019s men will face Rayo Vallecano in the final in Leipzig later this month after the Spanish side beat Strasbourg 2-0 on aggregate.<\/p>\n<\/amp-img>Maxence Lacroix of Crystal Palace Photo by Richard Heathcote\/Getty Images<\/span>Source: Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cIt\u2019s incredible, obviously for this football club, you see the connections between the players and supporters, it\u2019s fantastic, it\u2019s unbelievable,\u201d Palace goalkeeper Dean Henderson told TNT Sports.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe manager came in, he made this team believe we can win any game. It\u2019s been a difficult season obviously with the amount of games we\u2019ve played, we\u2019ve delivered another final, which is fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n
The south London side took the lead in the second leg in the 25th minute after a surging attack, with Adam Wharton at the centre of the move.<\/p>\n
Dmytro Riznyk palmed away Wharton\u2019s stinging long-range shot but was helpless as Daniel Munoz\u2019s follow-up from a tight angle flicked off Henrique and flew past him.<\/p>\n
Eguinaldo made it 1-1 for the exiled Ukrainian team with a nonchalant finish into the top corner, leaving Henderson rooted to the spot.<\/p>\n
Jean-Philippe Mateta crashed a shot against the post with an audacious scissor-kick shortly before interval as the home side continued to threaten.<\/p>\n
The tie was effectively over soon after the restart when Sarr turned in Tyrick Mitchell\u2019s cross from close range and Palace saw out the game comfortably.<\/p>\n
The final in Leipzig on May 27 will be Glasner\u2019s final match in charge after he announced earlier this season that he would leave when his contract expires next month.<\/p>\n
The 51-year-old Austrian, who arrived early in 2024, has overseen a golden period for Palace, guiding them to a 1-0 win over Manchester City in last season\u2019s FA Cup final \u2014 the club\u2019s first major trophy.<\/p>\n
Palace then beat Liverpool on penalties in the season-opening Community Shield. The Conference League, Europe\u2019s third-tier competition, was only launched in 2021 and two of the four winners so far have been London clubs \u2014 West Ham in 2023 and Chelsea last season.<\/p>\n
Palace are only in the competition because they were demoted from the Europa League before the start of the season after UEFA ruled they had breached multi-club ownership rules.<\/p>\n
Winning the Conference League would guarantee entry into next season\u2019s Europa League.<\/p>\n
Glasner, who won the Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt in 2022, was in sparkling form in his pre-match press conference on Wednesday, saying his players wanted to taste the \u201choney\u201d again after winning the FA Cup last year.<\/p>\n
Now they have the chance of a sweetest end to their season.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aston Villa reached their first European final for 44 years in memorable style with a 4-0 demolition of Nottingham Forest in the Europa League semi-finals on Thursday. Unai Emery\u2019s side erased a 1-0 first leg deficit thanks to Ollie Watkins\u2019 opener just before halftime and Emiliano Buendia\u2019s nerveless penalty after the interval. Fittingly, it was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":242272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6807],"tags":[156],"class_list":{"0":"post-242271","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leagues-cups","8":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}