Soccer
Ollie Watkins impressed by Aston Villa’s transformation into Europa champions
Striker Ollie Watkins has praised the way Aston Villa have transformed from relegation battlers to Europa League winners over recent years.
Villa finished 17th in their first season back in the Premier League in 2019-20 and were battling at the wrong end of the table when Unai Emery replaced Steven Gerrard in November 2022.
Fast forward just over three-and-a-half years and Emery has the club playing in Europe consistently.
Watkins, who has scored 19 goals across all competitions this season, says it is special to bring the Europa League trophy back to Birmingham – 44 years after they last lifted a European trophy.
He said: “The real atmosphere was out on the pitch. I’m looking forward to bringing that trophy back, I’m looking forward to the party ahead. Very special day.
“That belief has brought us together really. The Nottingham Forest game we showed resilience and that really brought us together.
“It kind of surprised us how much we can dig in and pull together as a team. We were close to relegation and to come back and do this now and bring a trophy back to Birmingham is special.”
In the warm-up ahead of Wednesday night’s 3-0 win over Freiburg at Besiktas Park, goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez appeared to injure his hand and was checked over by club physios.
Martinez left the warm-up early but it did not stop him from starting and keeping a clean sheet.
The 33-year-old World Cup winner admitted after the game that he had played with a broken finger.
He told ESPN: “What we achieved was beautiful. I feel proud and the feeling I keep growing match after match.
“Today I broke my finger during the warm-up, but I didn’t see it as a bad thing. I’ve never broken a finger before and every time I tried to catch the ball the finger would just slip away in the other direction.
“But, these are just things you have to go through.”
