Aston Villa captain John McGinn says his side must shed the “nearly men” tag and become legends by ending the club’s 30-year wait for silverware with Europa League success.
Villa booked their place in their first major European final since the club won the European Cup in 1982, 44 years ago, with an emphatic 4-0 victory at Villa Park on Thursday to beat Nottingham Forest 4-1 on aggregate.
McGinn scored twice on the evening after goals from Ollie Watkins and Emi Buendia wiped Forest’s advantage from the first encounter at the City Ground.
Now, Villa face Bundesliga side Freiburg in Istanbul on May 20 in a bid to lift their first major trophy since the 1996 League Cup.
“It’s a demanding club to play for, but when it’s like this, Villa Park is electric. There’s no better place to play your football every second week or European football,” McGinn told TNT Sports.
“What we have done in the last few weeks has been exceptional. 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.
“It’s about embracing it [pressure] and trying to become 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 have 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.”
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Unai Emery emphasises the importance of finishing in a Champions League spot in the Premier League table despite reaching the Europa League final.
Villa respond to ‘intense’ pressure and deliver
Villa came into the fixture, their biggest game since Unai Emery’s appointment in 2022, short on form. Three consecutive defeats to Fulham, Forest and Tottenham led to widespread criticism for both the players and manager.
Despite that pressure being ramped up on the team, Villa delivered when it mattered most and now get the chance to write a fresh chapter at a club steeped in tales of previous success.
“I am normally quite calm before games, but the pressure today was intense,” McGinn added. “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. We started with intent. We were pretty fortunate with Forest’s injuries, and we needed to capitalise.
John McGinn and Morgan Rogers celebrate during Aston Villa’s 4-0 win over Nottingham Forest to reach the Europa League final
“I wasn’t nervous in terms of the team turning up. We have done this before in big games, maybe not in semi-finals, but to get promoted and on the last day against Brighton to get into Europe.
“Then to stay up, which is the most pressure you can have. It was more in case we had a man sent off or something like that, also because we didn’t handle that first leg too well. I didn’t want to leave these two games with any regrets, and tonight we have done ourselves massive justice.”
Watkins: We need to go there and win now
Villa forward Watkins paid tribute to manager 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.”
