UEFA Europa League Final Preview: SC Freiburg vs. Aston Villa

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·18 Mei 2026

UEFA Europa League Final Preview: SC Freiburg vs. Aston Villa

Freiburg are one game away from winning their first major trophy as they face Aston Villa in Wednesday's Europa League final. Julian Schuster’s side concluded their Bundesliga season by qualifying for the Europa Conference League with a big win over third-placed RB Leipzig.

Winning the Europa League will promote them to the Champions League, which would seal a first-ever participation in Europe's premium competition. Meanwhile, Aston Villa already secured their return to Champions League football after a dominant victory against last season's Premier League winners Liverpool on Friday.

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Unai Emery's men knocked out fellow English club and former European Cup winners Nottingham Forest in the semi-final with an equally dominant display at Villa Park. The Spaniard coach has previously won this competition four times. The first three came in succession in the mid-2010s with the Europa League specialists Sevilla before repeating the feat in his debut season at Villarreal in 2020/21.

Emery's successful spell at Aston Villa only lacks silverware. After winning promotion in 2021, the club finished in the bottom half in their first three seasons back in the Premier League. When the former PSG and Arsenal coach took over the helm from Steven Gerrard, they had only two wins from the first 11 games of the 2022/23 campaign.

Including that time, Villa maintained their record of European qualifications at the end of every season with the 54-year-old in charge. The 1982-83 European Cup winners lost all major domestic cup finals they contested in the 21st century.

The story is similar for Freiburg as they were on the losing end of their first-ever showdown. A penalty shootout defeat to RB Leipzig denied them the 2021-22 DFB-Pokal triumph. Since then, they have also reached the semi-final of the domestic cup competition twice.

That includes another painful loss against VfB Stuttgart last month where Schuster’s men were defeated by a goal in the 119th minute. In Europe, the Breisgau Brazilians have never reached quarter-finals before this season's fairytale story.

They won both legs against Celta Vigo in the middle of reversing narrow defeats with emphatic home wins to knock out Genk and Braga. Freiburg equalled Sevilla's record of successive home wins in Europa League with seven of their 11-game streak came this season at Europa-Park Stadion.

Freiburg have only faced West Ham from English clubs in competitive fixtures. In the 2023/24 season, the two teams were in the same group before meeting again in the Round of 16. West Ham, who are now in real danger of relegation to the Championship, won the knockout tie by a 5-1 aggregate score.

While the German Daniel Siebert will referee the Champions League final between PSG and Arsenal, Francois Letexier is assigned for this game. Had the semi-final between PSG and Bayern ended with a different outcome, the duo would have probably had to exchange the games. The Frenchman was at the whistle for Spain’s win over England at Olympiastadion in the last European championship.

Villa's famous European triumph came against FC Bayern with Peter Withe scoring the winner in Feyenoord. They have also beaten Bayern and RB Leipzig in the league phase stage of last season's Champions League.

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Yuito Suzuki is unfortunately unavailable after playing a major role during Freiburg's Europa League campaign. The Japanese attacker has also missed the second leg against Braga after a broken collarbone.

Long-term absentee Boubacar Kamara could be joined by fellow midfielder Amadou Onana on the sidelines as the Belgian is yet to play after the first leg in Nottingham. Jadon Sancho, Ian Maatsen (both Dortmund), Emi Buendia and Leon Bailey (both Leverkusen) previously had spells in Bundesliga.