Unai Emery’s Aston Villa join rare Man United, Chelsea, Liverpool list after Europa League triumph
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Unai Emery has taken Aston Villa into a rare English club group after delivering the Europa League title.Villa’s 3-0 win over Freiburg in Istanbul did more than end a 30-year wait for silverware.It also put the club alongside Manchester United, Chelsea, and Liverpool as English teams to have won both Europe’s top competition and UEFA’s second-tier title.Photo by Ismael Adnan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty ImagesUnai Emery puts Aston Villa beside Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool after Europa League triumphPrime Video Sport highlighted the new English list after Aston Villa won the Europa League under Unai Emery.The list now includes Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Aston Villa as English clubs to have won both the Champions League or European Cup and the Europa League or UEFA Cup.Villa joined that group after beating Freiburg 3-0 in the 2026 Europa League final at Besiktas Park, with Youri Tielemans, Emiliano Buendía, and Morgan Rogers scoring on a historic night.The win also gave Emery his fifth Europa League title as a manager, extending his reputation as the competition’s defining modern coach.For Aston Villa, the achievement carries even more weight because their previous major European glory came in 1982, when they won the European Cup.Aston Villa’s European double joins Manchester United, Chelsea, and Liverpool trophy timelinesThe list is exclusive because only four English clubs have now completed this particular European double. Manchester United won the European Cup or Champions League in 1968, 1999, and 2008, before adding the Europa League in 2017.
MORE PREMIER LEAGUE STORIES Chelsea won the Champions League in 2012 and 2021, while their Europa League victories came in 2013 and 2019.Liverpool have the deepest European Cup history of the group, winning it in 1977, 1978, 1981, 1984, 2005 and 2019. Their UEFA Cup or Europa League wins came in 1973, 1976, and 2001.Aston Villa’s route is different but just as powerful for supporters.
Their 1982 European Cup win over Bayern Munich gave the club one of English football’s great continental nights, and the 2026 Europa League triumph finally added the missing second-tier UEFA trophy.Villa are no longer just celebrating the end of a trophy drought. They are now part of a European list that only England’s biggest continental winners can claim.Join Our NewsletterReceive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox