Dominant Villa cruise past Freiburg to Europa League title

Aston Villa cruised to their first trophy in 30 years in a dominant 3-0 win over SC Freiburg in the Europa League final on Wednesday night in Istanbul.

Youri Tielemans and Emiliano Buendía each scored a pair of stellar goals to close the first half before Morgan Rogers added another shortly after halftime to clinch Villa's first trophy since winning the Leagues Cup in 1995-96.

It also was a record fifth Europa League win for Aston Villa manager Unai Emery, who had won the trophy three times with Sevilla and once with Villarreal before taking over the Premier League side.

"It is hard to put into words. We have worked so hard for this," Rogers said after the game. "We knew we had one more game and we all delivered and we came through. It is a great moment for the fans, a great moment for the club, and it will go down in history."

Also celebrating wildly inside the Tupras Stadium was lifelong Villa fan Prince William, who traveled to watch his beloved team from Birmingham, England, end a three-decade wait for a major trophy.

He had his phone out taking photos as captain John McGinn lifted the cup in the center of the field and in front of an explosion of confetti.

"He is a classy guy," McGinn said of Prince William. "He was in the dressing room before the game. He is a massive Villa fan so he was never going to miss it.

"He is just a normal guy. It's great to have his support and hopefully it continues and tonight he can have a couple of drinks with us and maybe get his credit card out at the end of the night!"

German team Freiburg, who were playing in the second division 10 years ago, were outclassed in their first European final.

Villa was in England's second tier even more recently, in 2019. And while it was the overwhelming favorite going into Wednesday's match, occasions like this looked a long way off when Emery was hired in 2022.

Back then, Villa were one place above the relegation zone and in danger of going down again.

The transformation Emery has overseen has been remarkable -- leading the team into the Champions League last season and qualifying for European club soccer's top competition again next term.

Ollie Watkins added: "It feels amazing. To perform like that was unbelievable. We really controlled the game and we punished them in the end. It is an unbelievable experience, it's what you dream of.

"Unai was really calm today. Sometimes in the league games he can be a little bit anxious because he wants us to win, but today he was really calm and that set the tone."

Victory was further personal redemption for Emery, who was fired by Arsenal in November 2019 despite having led the team to the Europa League final earlier that year, which it lost to Chelsea.

A serial winner, he has now won trophies with clubs from three different countries, having also lifted the French title with Paris Saint-Germain.

"I am always very grateful for Europe, for every competition, Conference League, Champions League, Europa League, but especially Europa League," Emery said. "We fought strongly in this competition and tried to give it our best. We played in a very serious way this year."

Information from The Associated Press and PA was used in this report.