Aston Villa captain John McGinn says the club must end its 30-year wait for a silver medal with success in the Europa League, shed its “almost men’s” tag and become legendary.
Villa reached their first major European final since the club won the European Cup 44 years ago in 1982, beating Nottingham Forest 4-1 on aggregate with a 4-0 win at Villa Park on Thursday.
McGinn scored twice on the night after goals from Ollie Watkins and Emi Buendia wiped out Forest’s advantage from the first encounter at the City Ground.
Villa now face Bundesliga side Freiburg in Istanbul on May 20th, looking to win their first major trophy since the 1996 League Cup.
“It’s a demanding club to play for, but at times like this Villa Park is fine. There’s no better place to play football every fortnight than in European football,” McGinn told TNT Sports.
“What we’ve done in the last few weeks has been extraordinary. It’s close. If we lose tonight we’re almost men. When we go to Istanbul in 10 days, we need to make sure we’re not almost men.
“You have to accept that (pressure) and try to become a legend. You look at the players from 1982, you look at the cup winners in the 90s. It’s a club with a lot of history, but it hasn’t been successful for a long time.
“We’ve had some big downturns, including relegation, but we’ve overcome that and bounced back. We’re a very proud football club and deserve to be successful. Hopefully we can be the group that achieves that.”
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Unai Emery has stressed the importance of securing a Champions League spot in the Premier League table despite reaching the Europa League final.
Villa respond to ‘intense’ pressure and deliver results
Villa played their biggest game since Unai Emery took over as manager in 2022, but their form did not improve. Three consecutive defeats against Fulham, Forest and Tottenham led to widespread criticism of both player and manager.
Despite the increased pressure on the team, Villa delivered when it mattered most and had the opportunity to write a new chapter at a club full of success stories.
“Usually I’m very calm before a game, but today the pressure was intense,” McGinn added. “This group of players deserves to take another step forward to reach the final after several disappointments in the semi-finals.
“I might joke that it doesn’t affect me, but I was nervous today. Tonight they had one of the best performances I’ve seen from a Villa team for a long time. We started with intention. We were pretty lucky with Forest’s injury so we had to take advantage of that.”
John McGinn and Morgan Rodgers celebrate Aston Villa’s 4-0 win over Nottingham Forest as they progress to the Europa League final.
“I wasn’t nervous about the lineup of the team. We’ve done it in big games before, maybe not in the semi-finals, but we’ve done it against Brighton on the final day when we were fighting for promotion and for European qualification.
“And then to keep getting up. That’s the biggest pressure. If anything, it was in case someone got sent off or something like that, and we didn’t react well in the first leg. We don’t want to have any regrets about these two games and tonight we did ourselves great justice.”
Watkins: We need to go out there and win now.
Villa forward Watkins paid tribute to Emery after leading his side to the Europa League final.
“There’s no better coach to get us ready for this game and obviously get us to the finals. His track record speaks for itself,” Watkins said on TNT Sports.
“We’re in a great position, but we need to go out there now and win.”
Watkins praised the concerted effort of his Villa side, who narrowly fell short in their last Premier League match.
“After the performance against Tottenham, everyone was focused on this game,” said the England forward.
“Everyone worked really hard. It’s difficult to pick a man of the match, but we were all great.”
