Two stats for each team following Aston Villa's Europa League victory over Freiburg

[p][b][a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/634oQIejQ7FBqQ0Saq7Q7X?si=AciUt8gARAWfoL-zI7v4EQ&nd=1&dlsi=65a1bc59f1f04132"]You can now listen to this article via Spotify[/a].[/b][/p][h2]Remarkable run ends in Freiburg nightmare[/h2][p][b]12[/b] - In what was just their second-ever major final - the first coming in the DFB Pokal four years ago - [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/freiburg/fiEQZ7C7/"]Freiburg[/a] suffered more heartbreak. The German club conceded twice in the final few minutes of the opening half, which played a key role in the result. Despite the disappointment, [i]Breisgau-Brasilianer [/i]enjoyed a magical run in this season's Europa League. Yet, once again, it took an English side to undo them, just as [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/west-ham/Cxq57r8g/"]West Ham[/a] did two years prior in the last 16. Across five matches versus Premier League opposition, Freiburg have conceded 12 times in total.[/p][embed guid="90361b10-c4e2-47d5-a3ac-f5fb83e79774" url="https://x.com/EuropaLeague/status/2057177434034717149?s=20" social-type="twitter" /][p][b]2[/b] - While Freiburg will participate in Europe next season, they will be in another UEFA club competition for the first time as they [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/news/uefa-conference-league-2026-27-list-of-qualified-teams/QXE9NZbd/"]head to the UEFA Conference League[/a]. The side are relatively young when it comes to continental experience. After all, they have just finished their seventh European run. Throughout their 48 other matches at this level (all of which have come in the UEFA Cup/Europa League), Freiburg have been defensively sound. In fact, the defeat against Villa was just the second time in which they conceded more than two goals in a European game. The other came in a 5-0 beating by West Ham two years ago.[/p][h2]Villa enjoy new continental glory[/h2][p][b]53 [/b]- Having entered this season's competition as the overwhelming favourite, [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/aston-villa/W00wmLO0/"]Aston Villa[/a] ultimately lived up to the billing. [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/emery-unai/8QQVnKh9/"]Unai Emery[/a] wins his fifth UEL as coach, while the Villans claim a European trophy for the second time, 44 years on from European Cup glory. Just as they did on that occasion, they got the better of a German club in the final. It means that English sides have prevailed in the UEFA Cup/Europa League in consecutive seasons for the first time in 53 years, when [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/tottenham/UDg08Ohm/"]Tottenham[/a] and [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/liverpool/lId4TMwf/"]Liverpool[/a] won the first two editions of the UEFA Cup.[/p][p]The parallels are quite daunting with this stat: the first-ever tournament in 1971/72 saw Spurs beat a fellow English team ([a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/wolves/j3Azpf5d/"]Wolves[/a]) in the final, just like they did a year ago. Liverpool followed that up by doing what Villa did on Wednesday night - beating a German team in 1972/73, when they toppled [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/b-monchengladbach/88HSzjDr/"]Borussia Monchengladbach[/a].[/p][embed guid="9a9627de-9ca3-4889-a16a-c476851075f3" url="https://x.com/EuropaLeague/status/2057208238613877155?s=20" social-type="twitter" /][p][b]13 [/b]- Perhaps it was fitting that Villa lifted the trophy in Istanbul. After all, they were the most consistent team in the competition - from start to finish. They lost just twice in the competition this term, both times on the road, as they got the job done time and again. Overall, the Villans won 13 matches in the UEL proper this campaign. That is the joint-most of any winning team in the tournament's 17-year history under its current guise (qualifiers excluded).[/p][p]It was the fourth time that a team won 13 games from the group phase to the final. [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/fc-porto/S2NmScGp/"]Porto[/a] were the first to do so in 2010/11, with [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/atl-madrid/jaarqpLQ/"]Atletico Madrid[/a] following suit a year later. The Spanish team are the only side to have ever won all nine knockout round matches. [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/villarreal/lUatW5jE/"]Villarreal[/a] were the other to do so five years ago, with the manager leading them to that feat being none other than Emery himself.[/p][p][b][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/game/soccer/aston-villa-W00wmLO0/freiburg-fiEQZ7C7/?mid=IefockNE"]View all of the match stats from Wednesday's Europa League final on Flashscore.[/a][/b][/p]