Aston Villa 4-0 Nottingham Forest (Agg: 4-1): Another Europa League final for Unai Emery as Villa blow Forest away

Aston Villa blew Nottingham Forest away 4-0 at Villa Park to win 4-1 on aggregate and reach the Europa League final.

Forest's one-goal advantage from the first leg of this semi-final was wiped out by Ollie Watkins' first-half goal and Emiliano Buendia's penalty early in the second half put Unai Emery's side in control. John McGinn's late double completed the rout as Forest wilted.

Forest, for whom Morgan Gibbs-White was an unused substitute, came into the game on a five-game winning streak and full of optimism against a Villa side that had lost three in a row. But it's Emery's team who are off to Istanbul where they will face Freiburg.

As it happened | Teams | Stats

Latest news: Nottingham Forest | Aston Villa

Europa League fixtures & results

Download the Sky Sports app

How Villa turned the semi-final tie around

Attacking the Holte End from the outset, the Villa fans created a tremendous atmosphere with Forest trying hard to calm the crowd. Vitor Pereira's side actually appeared to weather that storm before Buendia's brilliant bit of skill opened them up.

The little Argentine skipped past two before laying the ball into the path of Watkins from close range. The England striker's head was bandaged following an earlier clash of heads with Morato, but he was on the spot to level the tie, cranking up the noise even more.

In the second half, Pereira introduced Ryan Yates in an attempt to make Forest more combative, but to no avail. It needed a VAR check to spot the shirt pull by Nikola Milenkovic on Pau Torres inside the box but it was clear. The irrepressible Buendia duly converted.

Any hope of a Forest comeback was erased by McGinn. The Villa captain had missed their poor loss against Spurs last weekend, but the talisman returned to send Villa Park into delirium, twice fed by Morgan Rogers and twice tucking the ball low into the corners.

For Emery, after the recent - and rare - criticism, it was triumph. Victor Lindelof, a surprise pick in midfield, was immense. Watkins and Buendia even better. Villa are one win from a first trophy in 30 years - and who would bet against Emery in this competition?

Emery reveals royal seal of approval | McGinn: We don't want to be 'nearly men'

Villa were given the royal seal of approval from Prince William after reaching the Europa League final.

Emery revealed the Prince of Wales visited the dressing room after the win.

The Spaniard said of Prince William at his post-match press conference: "He was in the dressing room with the players, and with me and of course he was so happy."

The Prince of Wales showed his emotion during the game as he wildly celebrated Buendia's spot-kick, which put Villa 2-0 up before McGinn's brace secured the victory - and the Scot does not want his side to be known as "nearly men".

He told TNT Sports: "The margins are so slim - if we lose tonight, then we are the nearly men.

"When we go to Istanbul in 10 days, we need to make sure that we are not the nearly men.

"Now it is about embracing it and trying to be legends. You see the guys from 1982, you see the cup winners in the 90s. It's a historic club, and it's been a long time without success.

"There's been massive lows, like relegation and it has built itself back up. It's such a proud football club, it deserves success and hopefully we can be the group to do it."

He added: "I am normally quite calm before games, but the pressure today was intense. This group of players deserves to go one step further to get to a final after a few semi-final disappointments.

"You can kid on that it doesn't affect you, but today I was nervous.

"Tonight was up there with one of the best performances I have seen from a Villa team in a long time."

Watkins: We need to go there and win now

Aston Villa forward Ollie Watkins paid tribute to manager Unai Emery after guiding his side into the Europa League final.

"There is no better manager to get us prepared for this game and obviously take us into the final as well. His track record speaks for itself," Watkins said on TNT Sports.

"We are in a great position, but we need to go there and win now."

Watkins praised the collective effort of the Villa team, who had come up short in their last Premier League match.

"After the performance against Tottenham, everyone's mind was on this game," the England forward said.

"Everyone worked so hard. It is hard to pick a man of the match - we were all amazing."

Villa's historic win in stats

Aston Villa have reached their first major European final since the 1982 European Cup final, 44 years ago. The only English clubs to have a longer gap between such finals are Manchester City (51 - 1970 to 2021) and West Ham (47 - 1976 to 2023).

This was the biggest ever margin of victory by an English side against another English club in any European competition. It was also the biggest by any side in a UEFA Europa League semi-final game since Manchester United 6-2 Roma in 2020-21.

Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has reached his sixth major European final - all in the UEFA Europa League from 2014 to 2026. Only Giovanni Trapattoni has managed more major finals in European competition (7).

Nottingham Forest have been eliminated from each of their last three major cup semi-finals - the 2022-23 League Cup v Manchester United, the 2024-25 FA Cup v Manchester City, and this season's UEFA Europa League v Aston Villa.

There were 156 seconds between John McGinn's first and second goals of this match - the first Aston Villa player to score a brace in a major European semi-final.

Ollie Watkins and John McGinn have both scored 11 goals in major European competitions for Aston Villa - the joint-most of any players.

Pereira bemoans injuries that cost Forest

Nottingham Forest head coach Vitor Pereira when asked in the press conference if there was any chance of Morgan Gibbs-White coming on:

"No. If you look at our bench today, we brought three players in condition to play. [Lorenzo] Lucca, [Dilane] Bakwa and [Ryan] Yates. And three players injured without condition to go inside, to help team. Three boys from the academy and Murillo with a risk to play, not yet ready to play.

"But in the end I am proud of my team, my players, our supporters. But today we came here without conditions to compete for the final, less one day to recover which makes a big difference. We tried everything but we didn't have the solutions. When we tried to risk something they scored two more goals.

"In the end, it is a tough result but it was a long road to the semi-final. A sad day, very difficult, but we must look to the future. In three days, we face a strong team. I hope we don't have more injuries because it is difficult to compete at this level. To compete with Aston Villa today, we needed all the players fit."

What's coming up for Forest and Villa?

Aston Villa face already relegated Burnley in their next Premier League fixture, visiting Turf Moor on Sunday May 10 at 2pm, live on Sky Sports+

Forest are also in Premier League as they seek survival. They host Newcastle on May 10, live on Sky Sports; kick-off also at 2pm.

Click here to read article