Unai Emery has done it again. Aston Villa are heading to the Europa League final, and the competition’s most reliable knockout specialist is now one match away from lifting the trophy for a fifth time.
Villa reached the final after a thumping 4-0 win over Nottingham Forest at Villa Park, overturning a 1-0 first-leg deficit to progress 4-1 on aggregate. Ollie Watkins and Emiliano Buendía struck before captain John McGinn scored twice late on, sending Villa into their first European final in 44 years. They will face Freiburg in Istanbul on May 20.
For Emery, this is familiar territory. Remarkably, it is his sixth Europa League final as a manager, reached with four different clubs: Sevilla, Arsenal, Villarreal and now Aston Villa. He has already won the competition four times, more than any other manager, and his record reads less like a résumé and more like a map of conquered cities. He’s the Europa League specialist.
His legend was forged at Sevilla. Emery won three consecutive Europa League titles with the Spanish club, beating Benfica in 2014, Dnipro in 2015 and Liverpool in 2016. That hat-trick turned Sevilla into the modern kings of the competition and made Emery its cold-eyed architect.
Then came Arsenal in 2018-19. His side reached the final in Baku, but Chelsea’s second-half surge ended in a 4-1 defeat. For many managers, that loss would be the defining wound. For Emery, it became merely the one smudge on a silver-plated record.
He returned with Villarreal in 2021 and produced one of the great Europa League stories. Against Manchester United in Gdańsk, his team held their nerve through a marathon penalty shootout to win the club’s first major European trophy. It was not just another title. It was proof that Emery could export his formula beyond Sevilla.
Now Villa are the latest believers. Since arriving in Birmingham, Emery has transformed a club that had been drifting into one capable of standing on the edge of European glory. His sides are structured, ruthless and strangely calm in the chaos of knockout football.
Aston Villa still have to finish the job against Freiburg. But if they do, Emery will not simply be “Mr Europa League” anymore. He will be the competition’s emperor, crown polished, cloak dragging through another final night.
