John McGinn leads Aston Villa to Europa League glory as fellow Scot makes mark on final
Former Hibs midfielder is first Scot in 25 years to lift trophy
John McGinn will travel to the World Cup with Scotland as a Europa League winner after leading Aston Villa to glory in Istanbul last night.
The 31-year-old captained his club to a 3-0 victory over German Bundesliga side Freiburg in the final at the Besiktas Stadium as Villa clinched their first major trophy in 30 years thanks to goals from Youri Tielemans, Emiliano Buendía and Morgan Rogers.
Former Hibs and St Mirren midfielder McGinn becomes the first Scot to lift the silverware since Gary McAllister won it with Liverpool back in 2001 when the competition was still known as the UEFA Cup.
Villa will now finish their season with a Premier League trip to Manchester City on Sunday with McGinn afforded a short break before joining up with the Scotland squad next Friday ahead of the friendly against Curacao at Hampden the following day.
“I was nervous before the semi-final but I wasn’t nervous tonight,” an ecstatic McGinn told TNT Sports. “We’ve built so much over the last six or seven years and this group of players deserve it.
“Not only that, the supporters do. When we were in the Championship, every single away end was full to the rafters. If we had got relegated to the Championship again it would have been the exact same.
“We’re a big club that deserves success and they will enjoy their night tonight.”
After falling short in the Conference League semi-finals and Champions League last-eight over recent times, manager Unai Emery brought European success back to Villa Park at the third time of asking.
The Prince of Wales was in attendance to witness Villa’s first European final since he was born, and watched his beloved side win their first major honour since the League Cup in 1996.
“Hopefully he’s paying for a free bar!” McGinn quipped. “He’s a classy guy. He was in the dressing room before the game and he’s a massive Villa fan so he was never going to miss it.
“It’s great to have his support and tonight he can have a couple of drinks with us and maybe get his credit card out. It will be very difficult to knock the big cheeser off my face tonight.”
Story of the match as another Scot has impact
Villa’s quality shone through with a pair of unstoppable strikes at the end of the first half from Tielemans and Buendia. Villa started to flex their muscles and Rogers added a third which sparked jubilant scenes on the final whistle.
They made their intentions known from the outset and it took just two minutes for them to make their mark when Rogers unleashed an effort which forced a first save from Noah Atubolu.
Freiburg have been deadly from set-pieces this season and almost made Villa pay from another when a ball into the box bounced favourably for Nicolas Hofler but he dragged an effort wide.
And Emiliano Martinez, who seemed fine after a slight injury scare in the warm-up, was required to stop exciting talent Johan Manzambi from range.
All the focus was on Freiburg’s danger from dead balls, but Villa are capable themselves, and they broke the deadlock four minutes before the break courtesy of a well-worked move crafted by Scottish set piece coach Austin MacPhee.
The first corner of the game fell to Villa who played short to Rogers and he crossed onto the onrushing Tielemans who arrived into the area and fired a spectacular volley past Atubolu.
And Villa doubled their advantage seconds before the interval when Buendia collected a pass from McGinn before bending a beautiful strike into the top-left corner from the edge of the box.
Villa’s confidence was up and Buendia tried a cheeky chip moments after the restart which Atubolu was alert to.
Villa did not rest on their laurels and had a third in the 58th minute, this time Buendia turned creator who sent in a cross which deflected nicely into the path of Rogers who slid home from two yards out.
McGinn was then denied by Atubolu after Amadou Onana hit the post which mattered little as Villa won a first European trophy since lifting the European Cup 44 years ago.
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