Watkins, Buendía and a McGinn double take Villa past Forest and into Istanbul
Aston Villa needed a comeback at Villa Park on Thursday night and they delivered the kind of performance Unai Emery's European nights are made of, beating Nottingham Forest 4-0 to win the semi-final 4-1 on aggregate and book a place in the Europa League final in Istanbul.
Forest had taken a 1-0 lead from the first leg at the City Ground after a Chris Wood penalty, awarded for a Lucas Digne handball. By the second half on Thursday Villa had blown that lead apart and reduced the tie to a procession.
A second-half avalanche at Villa Park
Ollie Watkins broke the deadlock in the 36th minute, finishing off a Buendía pass that cut Forest open after sustained pressure from the home side. Buendía himself doubled the lead from the spot in the 58th minute, sending Matz Sels the wrong way after Nikola Milenković fouled Pau Torres in the box.
From there it was the John McGinn show. The Scotland midfielder bent the third in from the edge of the area in the 77th minute, and three minutes later he was at it again, sweeping in a fourth that turned a comfortable night into a rout.
Emery's sixth European final
For Emery, this is a sixth final in European competition. He won the Europa League three years in a row with Sevilla in 2014, 2015 and 2016, added a fourth with Villarreal in 2021, and was beaten with Arsenal in 2019. No manager has been to this stage of the competition more often. He goes to Istanbul looking for a fifth winner's medal in the Europa League and a first piece of European silverware for Aston Villa in his time at the club.
For Aston Villa it is an even bigger landmark. This is the club's first major European final since the 1982 European Cup final, when Peter Withe's goal beat Bayern Munich in Rotterdam to win the trophy outright. Forty-four years is a long time to wait, and the response from supporters at full-time made that gap feel exactly as long as it has been.
Freiburg waiting in Istanbul
Villa now travel to face Freiburg at Beşiktaş Park on May 20. The German side came through their own semi-final to set up the showdown and will arrive without the European pedigree Villa carry, but with the kind of organised, low-block football that has caused problems for bigger names all season.
Emery has played down talk of being a Europa League specialist for years, but the record speaks loudly enough on its own. Five Europa League finals reached, four of them won, and now a sixth chance to add to the haul.
If Villa win in Istanbul they end a 44-year wait for European silverware. Even reaching the final, on a night that swung an entire tie inside two minutes, is one of the bigger moments in the club's recent history.
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