Aston Villa received a royal boost after booking their place in the Europa League final, with Prince William joining the celebrations following their emphatic victory over Nottingham Forest.
Villa stormed into the final with a commanding 4-0 second-leg triumph at Villa Park, sealing a 4-1 aggregate success and sparking wild scenes among supporters and players alike.
Following the final whistle, manager Unai Emery disclosed that the Prince of Wales personally visited the dressing room to congratulate the squad on their historic achievement.
“He was in the dressing room with the players, and with me and of course he was so happy,” said the Spaniard of Prince William.
Meanwhile, Prince William’s passion for Villa was evident throughout the clash as he celebrated emotionally from the stands, especially after Emiliano Buendia converted from the penalty spot to double the hosts’ advantage before John McGinn’s brace wrapped up a memorable European night.
Attention now quickly switches to Istanbul, where Villa will face Freiburg in the Europa League final on May 20.
Skipper John McGinn admitted the squad are determined to avoid falling short on the biggest stage after finally breaking through their semi-final barrier.
“The margins are so slim – if we lose tonight, then we are the nearly men,” he told TNT Sports.
“When we go to Istanbul in 10 days, we need to make sure that we are not the nearly men.
“Now it is about embracing it and trying to be legends. You see the guys from 1982, you see the cup winners in the 90’s. It’s a historic club, and it’s been a long time without success.
“There’s 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.”
Furthermore, McGinn admitted the pressure heading into the decisive clash was intense, but praised the squad for producing one of Villa’s finest performances in recent memory.
He added: “I am normally quite calm before games, but the pressure today was intense. 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.”
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