Overview
Unai Emery and UEFA Europa League seem to be born to belong to each other. Before the final match between Aston Villa and Freiburg, the Spanish strategist had led teams to a European Cup final five times, and all of them took place in the Europa League.
Emery has won the title four times - with Sevilla in the 2013-2014, 2014-2015, 2015-2016 seasons and with Villarreal in the 2020-2021 season. He also brought Arsenal to the final of the 2018-2019 season but lost to Chelsea.
Now, Emery is facing the opportunity to win his fifth title in his career when Aston Villa faces Freiburg. This will be Emery's sixth European final, equaling the achievement of Carlo Ancelotti, Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho. Only Giovanni Trapattoni has participated more with 7 finals.
In UEFA's history of major tournaments, only Ancelotti - with five Champions League titles - has more titles than Emery, who has won the Europa League four times.
Notably, there are only three coaches who have won the UEFA Cup/Europa League with two different clubs including Emery, Trapattoni and Mourinho. No one has done this with three different teams, and Emery is facing the opportunity to make history.
In the opposite direction, the match in Istanbul will mark a special milestone for Julian Schuster. At the age of 41 and 35 days, the Freiburg coach will become the youngest German strategist to lead a European Cup final since Matthias Sammer in 2002.
Freiburg also participated in a European final for the first time, becoming the 16th German team to do this.
Meanwhile, Aston Villa has only appeared for the second time in a European final, after the historic victory over Bayern Munich in the 1982 European Cup Final. Only Manchester City has a longer waiting period between the first two European finals in the club's history.
Since the beginning of the 2023-2024 season, no team has won more matches in European competitions than Aston Villa with 26 wins. Besides, only Arsenal has kept more clean sheets than them in the same period.
However, Freiburg is completely capable of causing difficulties for Villa's defense. The Bundesliga representative has scored 25 goals in the Europa League this season. Since the 2009-2010 season, only 3 German teams have scored more goals in a Europa League season, including Werder Bremen, Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayer Leverkusen.
The most notable star on Freiburg's side is Vincenzo Grifo, the player who is leading the Europa League this season in the number of direct goals with 9 times, including 5 goals and 4 assists. The Italian midfielder has made his mark in all 5 recent matches at the tournament.
On Aston Villa's side, Morgan Rogers is central to Emery's attacking style. The English player is leading the league in the number of chances created (27), expected assists (3.3) and the number of touches in the opponent's penalty area (65). Since the 2009-2010 season, only James Milner has created more chances in a Europa League campaign for an English player.
Head-to-head record
This will be the first time Freiburg and Aston Villa have faced each other in the European arena. At the same time, this is also the first time since the 2019-2020 season that a Europa League final has taken place between two teams that have never faced before - when Sevilla defeated Inter Milan with a score of 3-2.
In history, Freiburg has only faced the English representative once in European cups, which was West Ham United in the Europa League season 2023-2024.
For Aston Villa, this will be their first major European final against a German opponent since winning the European C1 Cup in 1982.
Score prediction: Freiburg 1-2 Aston Villa
The match between Freiburg and Aston Villa takes place at 2:00 a.m. on May 21 (Vietnam time).
