Aston Villa lifted their first European trophy in 44 years thanks to their 3-0 win over Freiburg in the Europa League final.
The win also continued Unai Emery’s dominance of the competition, with this being his fifth success acrosss three different clubs.
Aston Villa took a 2-0 lead into half-time thanks to goals from Youri Tielemans and Emiliano Buendia, who excellent strikes. It was the result of hard work in the first half, with Villa pinning Freiburg deep and waiting patiently to undo their defensive unit.
The Villans stepped things down slightly in the second half but stayed defensive strong, looking to catch Freiburg on the counter. Morgan Rogers put the result beyond doubt just before the hour mark.
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Lindelof role gives control
The usage of Victor Lindelof in recent weeks has been genius from Emery, in the absence of Amadou Onana and Boubacar Kamara in midfield.
Lindelof started in midfield against Freiburg, joining Youri Tielemans in the double pivot when forming the 4-2-2-2 from restarts, but shifting into more of a right centre-back position in settled possession.
This rotation allowed both Matty Cash and Lucas Digne to push forward from full-back, pinning Freiburg’s wide men low inside their own half and establishing control in the game.
Lindelof dropping into the backline allowed Emery to form a 3-1 base against Freiburg’s front two (in their 4-4-2 out of possession scheme), extending the distances for the opposition midfield to jump into a man oriented press from a more zonal press.
The movement of the front four of Aston Villa also caused issues for the Freiburg defensive unit. Freiburg’s full-backs would follow John McGinn and Buendia inside, leaving space in the channels for arriving full-backs or runs from the two forwards.
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Villa’s long ball route
In the early stages of the game, you could see Emery had a plan to draw Freiburg onto their 4-2-2-2 build up. The idea was to hit Ollie Watkins and access the 2v2 in the last line.
McGinn and Buendia would look to move deeper and narrow to test the bravery of the Freiburg full-backs when following their man, which only opened up the space for the two forwards to operate.
The movement of the front four made it difficult for Freiburg’s defence to keep their initial man marking references, as if McGinn goes inside and Rogers rotates into a wider area, the Freiburg defenders will often have to cross paths, leaving the full-back protecting central areas and the centre-back defending in wide spaces.
But it wasn’t this initial plan that led to Villa breaking the deadlock. Instead, it came from a moment of rehearsed quality, with a training ground set-piece routine coming to life.
Scorchers to open it up
The opening goal came from a short corner into Rogers from Lucas Digne. Buendia ran towards the corner taker across the byline, opening up the angle for Rogers.
Rogers then had an extra second to open up his body, and find a long range pass into the space for Tielemans to arrive in at the top of the 18-yard box.
At the same time, Lindelof, Pau Torres and Ezri Konsa were blocking off four Freiburg defenders looking to defend their six-yard box, leaving the space free for Tielemans to arrive and apply the finish, catching the volley beautifully to make it 1-0.
But the screamers didn’t stop there, as Buendia wanted to go one better than Tielemans did with his finish.
The Argentinian received it at the top of the 18-yard box, swivelling inside of Vincenzo Grifo who couldn’t see Buendia arriving off the back of Johan Manzambi, allowing him to take it on the back foot, open up his body and bend it into the top far left corner, making it 2-0 before the break.
One for the future
While it wasn’t Manzambi’s best performance, Freiburg’s Swiss superstar had a few moments of quality which showed exactly why there is so much promise around him.
After a quiet opening half-hour from the 20-year-old, Manzambi clawed the ball away from Tielemans trying to run past him, getting it back in space from 25-yards and testing Emiliano Martinez for the first time in the game.
From that point, Manzambi began drifting into the wide channels in an attempt to pick up the ball outside of the block, looking to drive at the Villa defence and make something happen.
Freiburg’s biggest chance of the half came not too long after Manzambi’s effort on goal, with the 20-year-old receiving it in the left channel and driving into the box, shifting it past Lindelof with a step-over and flashing a cross into the box which wasn’t met by a Freiburg player.
The physicality, the frame and the technical ability of the Swiss midfielder is clear, and to top it all off, he has a rocket launcher of a throw, which could make him an interesting profile for Premier League clubs to look at this summer.