Aston Villa defeated Nottingham Forest (4:0, 4:1 on aggregate) in the English derby and clash of former European champions, to the general delight of Prince William in the banquet box, a big fan of the Birmingham club, and 50 noisy fans at Villa Park.
The fifth-placed Premier League side head to Istanbul for the final against Freiburg, with manager Unai Emery chasing an incredible fifth Europa League trophy. He has won three with Sevilla and one with Villarreal.
Oli Votiks scored in the 36th minute after a great breakthrough by Argentine Buendia, who made a slalom on the left side, thus allowing the home team to cancel out Birmingham's deficit from the first leg.
Nikola Milenkovic unnecessarily pulled Rodgers' shirt at the start of the second half, and after the VAR intervention, Villa were awarded a penalty, which Buendia converted to make it 2:0.
The performance at "Vila Park" was enhanced by captain Megin, with two beautiful, almost identical goals in the 77th and 80th minutes.
Aston Villa's rival will be Freiburg - a surprising finalist, despite coming from Germany.
The seventh-placed Bundesliga team, which was not so long ago in the second division, defeated Braga 3-1 after losing 2-1 in Portugal in the first leg.
The fans ran onto the field after the final whistle, coach Schuster kissed the grass of the Europa-Park stadium with joy - a good indication of what this means to Freiburg.
The show was geared towards a German triumph as early as the 6th minute, when player Braga Dorželes received a direct red card.
The Portuguese played with one player less for almost the entire match and had no chance.
Kubler in the 19th minute, Manzambi in the 41st minute, and Kubler again in the 72nd minute, took Freiburg to Istanbul.
Braga reduced the score to 3:1 in the 79th minute through Viktor, but with one player less they were unable to score another goal and force extra time.
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