u/SecretApe

WE'VE WON THE EUROPA LEAGUE. EMERY, THE ABSOLUTE LEGEND HAS DONE IT AGAIN. I'm just speechless, to go from the Championship, to see McGinn and Mings take us up to lifting this trophy. Just speechless, things of dreams. Villa just outlcassed Freiburg today, Freiburg could not threaten us and it felt we never really left third gear. Tielemans scored the first goal after a good corner routine saw Rogers cross to Tielemans and his volley was converted. Buendia then scored after being given aches of space, and he curled in a beauty of a shot. Lastly Rogers scored after Buendia's low cross, and Rogers.

Well done. Celebrate it. Take it in. We've all deserved this. The players, the staff, and the fans. We've done it.

Good night!

Freiburg Starting 11 Atubolo; Kubler, Ginter, Lienhart, Treu; Eggestein, Hofler; Beste, Manzaml, Grifo; Matanovic

Aston Villa Starting 11 Martinez; Cash, Konsa, Torres, Digne; Lindelof, Tielemans; McGinn, Rogers, Buendia; Watkins

Freiburg Subs Gunter, Holer, Huth, Irie, Jung, Makengo, Muller, Ogbus, Osterhage, Philipp, Rosenfelder, Scherhant

Aston Villa Subs Abraham, Bailey, Bizot, Bogarde, Luiz, Elliott, Garcia, Maatsen, Mings, Onana, Sancho, Wright

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Freiburg 0-3 Aston Villa

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This is it. The final. What we've all been waiting for. Let's enjoy it.

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Match Events

Villa KICK OFF AT ISTANBUL

5 min: Treu is booked for fouling McGinn

15 min: Buendia budges into Beste and is shown a yellow.

20 min: Cash is booked for a late challenge on Grifo. This ref is giving a yellow for each challenge at this rate

41 min: TIELEMANS!!! Corner is short to Rogers, then its crossed to the edge of the box to Tielemans who was completely free, and his first time shot aimed into the bottom left corner beats Atubolo. MacPhee you beauty of a tactician

43 min: BUENDIA! OMG WHAT A GOAL. Buendia is free on the right side for a good 30 seconds, Cash finds him, Buendia cuts in and curls it into the top left corner. Stunning

Half time. We lead 2-0 at the break.

Second half is underway

58 min: ROGERS! Thats it. Digne to Buendia, who waits for his team-mates, sends in a low cross and Rogers makes a brilliant run in to poke it in.

60 min: Double sub for Freiburg Leinhart and Hofler out for Rosenfelder and Holer

65 min: Lindelof comes off - he was terrific, absolute rock. Onana comes on

72 min: Grifo and Kubler are subbed off for Makengo and Scherhant

80 min: Buendia and Digne are coming off for Maatsen and Sancho

83 min: McGinn booked for a foul on Rosenfelder

85 min: Gunter on for Beste

87 min: Mings and Luiz are on for Tielemans and Torres. For Mings and Luiz this is massive for them to get some game time

We've done it! UCL FOOTBALL IS BACK AT VILLA PARK NEXT SEASON. The boys left it late, but settled it with a stunning performance tonight at Villa Park. Its been a while since we saw this type of football, but Villa really played to Liverpool's weaknesses, long-balls and counter attacking football. The first goal came by Rogers who curled it in from wide after a short free kick routine. This allowed us to lead the game into the second half. Liverpool did hit back with van Dijk scoring from the freekick as he beat Cash and had a free header. Watkins scored minutes later as Szoboszali slipped, allowing Rogers to pounce and cross in to Watkins who tapped it in. He later scored his second, as from a corner Tieleman's shot was saved, but went to the pathway of Torres, whose shot was also saved, but not the third tap in by Watkins. Last goal for us, came from McGinn who scored the best one. Out side of the box shot into the opposite corner. van Dijk did score in extra time as a short corner was played with again Szoboszali assisting. Regardless, it was a terrific display, especially in attack today. Movement, determination was all there. We enter the Europa League final, motivitated, in form and not having to stress about UCL qualification.

MOTM, to me its Watkins. His movement today, superb, hold up play, superb, determination top. He's got one more big game for us this season, he'll be going into the final in really hot form. Buendia also was an absolute work horse, creating chances and almost scored himself. Shoutout to Rogers who also contributed a lot in attack.

League table... we've got UCL no matter what. We have a 7 point gap to Bournemouth, meaning no matter what they do they cannot catch us. We are currently in 4th, which realistically is the best position we can manage. But 4th or 5th. Doesn't really matter now. That is our EPL season wrapped up all things considered. See you all on Wednesday.

Aston Villa Starting 11 Martinez; Cash, Konsa, Torres, Digne; Lindelof, Tielemans; McGinn, Rogers, Buendia; Watkins

Liverpool Starting 11 Mamardashvili; Gomez, Konate, van Dijk, Kerkez; Gravenberch, Mac Allister; Szoboszali, Jones, Ngumoha; Gakpo

Aston Villa Subs Abraham, Bailey, Barkley, Bizot, Bogarde, Luiz, Garcia, Maatsen, Sancho

Liverpool Subs Chiesa, McConnell, Ndiaye, Nyoni, Robertson, Salah, Wirtz, Woodman, Wright

Aston Villa 4-2 Liverpool

Last fixture at Anfield we lost 2-0. In fact we haven't beaten Liverpool since the 7-2 back in 2020.

Match Events

Kick off!

26 min: Gravenberch goal is ruled out for offside as he scored after Martinez fails to catch Gakpo’s shot.

38 min: Cash yellow for a late challenge on Kerkez

41 min: ROGERS! What magic by the main man. Freekick is played short, McGinn to Digne to Rogers who is free from the left and he just curls it into the bottom right corner. Rogers left with so much space

48 min: Watkins is booked for continuing to play after being called off side

Half time. We’re up 1-0

At the break Barkley comes on for Lindelof

Second half underway

52 min: van Dijk scores... freekick comes in and van Dijk is free and heads in the ball. It is being looked at as van Dijk did push Cash in the build up, but how soft/fair it is... its pending. Goal stands, not a foul, Cash should've been stronger on his feet

55 min: Watkins scores but was in an offside position when the ball was played

56 min: WATKINS! This one should stand! Szoboszali slips and Rogers intercepts, passes to Watkins in the centre, and Watkins taps it so it goes past the keeper into the bottom right corner.

61 min: Gomez booked for a late tackle on Buendia

65 min: McGinn is shown a yellow for kicking Szoboszali by the byline

Chiesa and Wirtz on for Gomez and Gravenberch

72 min: Get fucked Mac Allister. WATKINS SCORES AGAIN! The corner there was a tussle again, Konsa was probably fouled but who cares. Corner comes in, its cleared but by Tielemans whose shot is saved, and then Torres shot is saved, but not Watkins follow up

74 min: Salah has come on for Gakpo

83 min: Buendia comes off for Maatsen. He was superb today

88 min: MCGINN. Wow. What a goal. Watkins holds the ball up nicely, plays it off to McGinn on the right, and he takes a long range shot that just curls into the top left corner. Stunning

89 min: McGinn and Tielemans replaced by Luiz and Sancho

91 min: van Dijk scores... corner is played short, its crossed in by Szoboszali and van Dijk gets a head on to it to place it bottom right corner.

Full time we've won!

Aston Villa have done it! Wow. We are in the final of the Europa League. It was utter dominance from the first minute, Forest started with 2 forwards and we just ran them down in midfield. Watkins scored the first goal as Buendia did amazing footwork to beat his defenders and send in a low cross. In the second half we just dominated more. Torres was pulled down and we won a penalty, which Buendia converted. Then McGinn scored a brace with two very similar goals as Forest was left open.

MOTM goes to McGinn and Buendia, these two ran the show and won us the game. McGinn for pressing, chance creation and conversion. Buendia, for being literally the Argentianian Messi and being everywhere across the pitch.

We face Freiburg in a fortnight as they beat Braga 3-1 today sending them to the final.

Aston Villa Starting 11 Martinez; Cash, Lindelof, Konsa, Torres, Digne; McGinn, Buendia, Tielemans; Watkins, Rogers

Nottingham Forest Starting 11 Ortega; Cunha, Milenkovic, Morato, Williams; Hutchinson, Dominguez, Anderson, McAtee; Igor Jesus; Wood

Aston Villa Subs Abraham, Bailey, Bizot, Bogarde, Luiz, Elloitt, Garcia, Maatsen, Mings, Sancho, Wright

Nottingham Forest Subs Bakwa, Gibbs-White, Hanks, Lucca, Murillo, Ndoye, Sangare, Sels, Sinclair, Whitehall, Willows, Yates

Aston Villa 4-0 Nottingham Forest (4-1)

Last game we lost 1-0 with Wood scoring from the penalty spot.

Match Events

Kick off!! Let’s go! UTV

18 min: Morato is booked

35 min: WATKINS!!!! Buendia does amazingly to skip past the defence get to the byline and sends a low cross into the box and Watkins taps home. Amazing work by Buendia wow.

48 min: Cunha booked for fouling Buendia.

Half time, we’re leading 1-0. One more goal to go

Yates is on for McActee during the break. Forest kick off the second half

55 min: Torres was pulled down in the box with his shirt held. VAR is looking…

Penalty!!!

56 min: Buendia is going to take… he scores! Shots right!

60 min: Watkins scores, but he’s offside

70 min: Wood is replaced by Lucca. And Morato off for Bakwa

73 min: Lindelof comes off for Bogarde

76 min: MCGINNNN!!! Long ball goes through, Watkins finds McGinn free on the right and he just curls it into the corner.

79 min: MCGINNNN AGAIN copy and paste. Rogers finds McGinn and again bottom right corner, curls in. Wow

85 min: Sancho comes on for Buendia

86 min: Hutchinson and Cunha come off for Murillo, and Sinclair

88 min: McGinn and Rogers comes off for Bailey and Mings and Bailey. One more player came off but I missed it

Worst performance we've seen in years. Spurs scored twice in the first half, firstly by Gallagher's long range strike, then Richarlison scored a header from Tel's cross. We had one touch in the opposition box all first half. Second half, much of the same.Buendia scored late on in the 95th minute a header in our only strike on target. We absolutely deserved to lose today and I hope that the massive rotation to the squad will pay dividends on Thursday.

MOTM. The fans. Feel for the fans today who paid a lot of money to watch this.

We remain in 5th. Bournemouth have closed our gap to now 6 points. With 3 games left and 9 to play for we will need 3 or 4 points depending on our goal difference in the final 3 games for UCL.

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Results around us

Manchester United 3-2 Liverpool

Bournemouth 3-0 Cyrstal Palace

Aston Villa Starting 11 Martinez; Cash, Lindelof, Mings, Mings, Maatsen; Bogarde, Tielemans; Sancho, Barkley, Rogers; Abraham

Tottenham Starting 11 Kinsky; Porro, Danso, van de Ven, Udogie; Bentacur, Palinha; Kolo Muani, Gallagher, Tel; Richarlison

Aston Villa Subs Bailey, Bizot, Buednia, Digne, Luiz, Garcia, Konsa, Torres, Watkins

Tottenham Subs Austin, Bergvall, Bissouma, Gray, Maddison, Sarr, Souza, Spencer

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Aston Villa 1-2 Tottenham

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Previous fixture we won 2-1 at the Spurs Stadium, Bentacur scored first, before Villa took over the game with Rogers and Buendia scoring. This was back in October. We also beat Tottenham 2-1 in the FA Cup with Rogers and Buendia again scoring with Odebert scoring for Spurs. Lets make it 3 wins in a single season!

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Match Events

Kick off

11 min: Gallagher scores... Spurs have a long throw, Tielemans heads clear and Gallagher gets the ball takes a touch and fires a low shot into the bottom right corner.

25 min: Richarlison scores... Tel crosses in the ball, and Richarlison beats our defence to heads straight into the goal

27 min: Munani is shown a yellow

44 min: Bentacur booked for fouling Bogarde

Half time. We’re losing 2-0 in what was the worst half of Villa I’ve seen in years

second half underway. No subs

51 min: Barkley is booked for fouling Gallagher

59 min: Watkins comes in for Abraham

65 min: Subs for Spurs, Bentacur and Kolo Muani replaced by Bissouma, and Spence

73 min: Tel is booked for holding and pulling down Rogers

77 min: Rogers booked for complaining

81 min: Danso shown a yellow, made a mistake earlier thought it was Danso it was Tel who was booked earlier. Danso fouls Watkins

84 min: Buendia and Bailey come in for Barkley and Sancho

91 min: Sarr and Bergvall come on for Richarlison and Tel

95 min: Gallagher booked

95 min: Buendia scores! Cash crosses it in and Buendia gets a head on to get it past the keeper

Full time. We've lost 2-1

First leg ends in a defeat. First half we started alright, we had good movement, Tielemans had a shot that was well saved and it seemed we were on the front foot. The final 10 mins of the first half Forest started to get back into the game, and that also came in the form of strong tackles that were often overlooked. But alas. First half, not bad. Second half? Forest had taken control unfortuantely. The number of chances from Villa dipped, Rogers had a good shot saved by Oretega but otherwise a little bit fruitless in attack. Onana got injured again, and afterwards it was just tougher for us to maintain control, maintain possession. Eventually we conceded a penalty Hutchinsons cross came off Digne's hand but there is a lot of controversy whether or not Hutchinson kept the ball in. The camera angle was not helpful and I personally think it went out. Wood scored the penalty and that was that. Forest lead the first leg.

Martinez MOTM, world class saves, almost got to the penalty. The performance was not there for Villa today, after 30 minutes we just didn't have it in us. Rogers tried to make things happen but again it just didn't have much end product.

Next game is next week at Villa Park. Its not over by any stretch. Its just one goal lead that where we can fight back into the tie.

Braga is leading the first leg against Freiburg 2-1.

Nottingham Forest Starting 11 Ortega; Aina, Milenkovic, Morato, Williams; Hutinchson, Dominguez, Anderson, Gibbs-White; Wood, Igor Jesus

Aston Villa Starting 11 Martinez; Cash, Konsa, Torres, Digne; Onana, Tielemans; McGinn, Buendia, Rogers; Watkins

Nottingham Forest Subs Abbott, Bakwa, Blake, Hanks, Lucca, McAtee, Sels, Sinclair, Whitehall, Willows, Yates

Aston Villa Subs Abraham, Bailey, Bizot, Bogarde, Luiz, Elloitt, Garcia, Lindelof, Maatsen, Mings, Sancho, Wright

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Nottingham Forest 1-0 Aston Villa

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Two former European Champions go face to face in the semi final of the Europa League. In our H2H, the common trend is that we win at Villa Park, whilst Forest get results at the City Ground. We played Forest in April recently where we tied 1-1. Murillo scored an own goal and Williams equalised for Forest.

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Match Events

Kick off!

Half time; its 0-0

Second half is underway

55 min: Onana is injured and has to come off, Bogarde comes in

67 min: VAR is looking at a potential handball coming off Digne, cross came in and Hutchinson did kick the ball and it skimmed of Digne's hand as he held it up. But it does look like the ball left the play, and it was more ball to hand rather than the opposite. Not a pen IMO

Ref is looking

Penalty given...

70 min: Wood scores it, smashes it top right

74 min: Abbott comes in for Aina who appears to have a slight knock

77 min: Tielemans booked for following Anderson

78 min: McGinn, Digne and Buendia replaced by Maatsen, Sancho and Luiz

89 min:Yates is on for Igor Jesus

Full time we've lost