Home of football statistics and historyA battle for the heaviest piece of UEFA silverware takes place at Besiktas Park on 20 May 2026 as Freiburg and Aston Villa go head-to-head in the 2025/26 Europa League final.
Weighing 15kg, this trophy would represent the first major European honour for the German side, as they gear up for their maiden appearance in a continental final.
Meanwhile, no strangers to winning a top European competition, the Premier League giants return to a continental decider for the first time since winning the European Cup in 1982.
When & where is the 2026 Europa League final?
The second most prestigious European final will take place at Istanbul’s Besiktas Park on Wednesday, 20 May. Kick-off is at 8pm BST.
Besiktas Park will host its second major UEFA event following the 2019 UEFA Super Cup showdown between Liverpool and Chelsea.
With a capacity of around 40,000, the home ground of 16-time Turkish Super Lig champions Besiktas will stage the 17th Europa League final since the competition was rebranded from the UEFA Cup in 2009.
Fans in the UK will be able to watch the Europa League final on TNT Sports (via HBO Max). For non-UK fans, here is how you can live stream football worldwide.
What’s on the line?
As highlighted by Villa captain John McGinn in the wake of Thursday’s 4-0 thrashing of Nottingham Forest in the return leg of their semi-final tie, ‘this football club deserves success.’
Despite Villa’s pre-match favouritism, Freiburg will head to Turkey with an unparalleled desire to capture the first top-tier trophy in the club’s history in only their fifth Europa League campaign.
In addition to European glory, the winners of this competition will also earn a place in the 2026/27 UEFA Champions League main draw unless they qualify through their domestic championship.
Meet the finalists
Freiburg
Julian Schuster’s side overturned a first-leg deficit against Sporting Braga in the semi-finals, as a second-leg double from Lukas Kubler helped Freiburg secure a 4-3 aggregate victory.
Before this season, Freiburg’s best European run came in 2023/24, when they reached the round of 16, only to bow out to Villa’s domestic rivals West Ham United. However, long-serving stalwart Vincenzo Grifo insists that ‘we will do everything to win the title’ this time around.
West Ham remain the only English side to face Breisgau-Brasilianer in European football, but three defeats in four clashes against the Irons paint a bleak picture for the Germans ahead of this final.
Aston Villa
Villa’s scintillating second-leg performance against Forest saw them bounce back from a first-leg defeat at the City Ground and secure a place in a major UEFA final for the first time in over four decades.
Few managers in European football boast a stronger pedigree to guide the Lions out of their long continental drought than current boss Unai Emery. Indeed, the man in charge has won the Europa League four times.
After leading Sevilla to an unprecedented three consecutive titles between 2014 and 2016, the Spaniard cemented his reputation as a ‘Europa League specialist’ by guiding Villarreal to glory in 2021.
Freiburg’s road to Istanbul
Schuster’s charges enjoyed a near-perfect league-phase campaign, going unbeaten in their first seven matches before a dead rubber 1-0 defeat at Lille in the final round.
Freiburg bypassed the knockout play-off round, but they had to overcome a first-leg deficit against Genk in the round of 16, and they did so in emphatic fashion, cruising to a 5-1 win at home in the return fixture.
A quarter-final tie against Celta Vigo was plain sailing, with the Bundesliga side winning both legs by an aggregate score of 6-1 before squeezing past Braga in the semis.
Aston Villa’s road to Istanbul
Like their opponents, Villa put together a near-flawless league phase, winning seven of their eight games to secure automatic qualification for the last 16 and a tie against Lille.
A 3-0 aggregate triumph over Les Dogues set up an exciting quarter-final showdown with Bologna, but the Italians proved no match for the Lions, who swept both legs with a commanding 7-1 combined score.
Forest made a valiant attempt to hinder Emery’s pursuit of his fifth Europa League victory as a manager, only for Villa to respond to their narrow loss in Bridgford with a thumping win at Villa Park.
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