Villa rout Forest to book Europa League final spot
ROCKING: Aston Villa fans celebrate in the stands after their fourth goal. pIC: Nick Potts/PA Wire.
Aston Villa were given an official royal seal of approval as they booked their first European final appearance in 44 years - but it was Emi Buendia who reigned supreme last night.
Prince William, who was born a month after Villa were crowned champions of Europe in 1982, couldn't help but get caught up in the maelstrom as the little attacking midfielder from Argentina provided the inspiration for Unai Emery to continue his love affair with the Europa League.
Buendia created the first-half goal for Ollie Watkins which brought the midlands club level on aggregate. Then he conquered any nerves to send an ice-cool penalty past Forest keeper Stefan Ortega after Nikola Milenkovic's mind-numbingly foolish foul on Pau Torres had quite rightly been punished after being spotted by the VAR.
Villa captain John McGinn, the club's longest-serving player, sealed victory with two exceptional finishes in the space of three minutes late in the game.
Villa will now face German club Freiburg in the final in Istanbul on May 20. The Bundesliga club currently sit seventh in the table and Emery will be a huge favourite to get his hands on the trophy for a fifth time.
A late penalty by Chris Wood gave Forest a slender advantage to protect in the first leg at the City Ground. But the loss of Morgan Gibbs-White was a significant blow for Forest manager Vitor Pereira. The England midfielder suffered a gruesome cut on his forehead during the weekend win at Chelsea and couldn't be risked.
Emery put his faith in experience to get the job done. Morgan Rogers was the only player aged under 28 in his starting team. He also used centre-back Victor Lindelof as a defensive midfielder.
Forest landed a small psychological blow when captain Wood called the coin toss correctly and asked the home side to kick towards the Holte End in the first half.
But Villa's most vocal fans might still have had a goal to celebrate inside the first four minutes had Ezri Konsa managed to make contact with McGinn's in-swinging free-kick as he arrived at the far post.
James McAtee, who was asked to fill the creative void left by the absence of Gibbs-White, did find some space in the early exchanges as Lindelof struggled to adapt to his new role.
It was McAtee's clever switch of play that enabled Omari Hutchinson to cut inside Lucas Digne at pace from the right before sending a sweetly-struck curling shot just wide of the far post.
Forest hardly threatened again as Pereira's decision to pair Wood with Igor Jesus in attack left his team short of numbers in midfield.
Villa, though, were really in the mood. Forest keeper Stefan Ortega had to be alert to touch over Torres' flicked back header as the home side forced three successive corners.
Watkins needed a head wound bandaged up after a nasty ariel clash with Morata that also left the Brazilian needing treatment. Forest were fortunate that Swedish referee Glenn Nyberg saw nothing wrong with the challenge.
Youri Tielemens, celebrating his 29th birthday, engineered some space to set his sights on goal only to drag his 25-yard shot wide.
Then, in the 35th minute came the equaliser. Watkins was the scorer, firing into the roof of the net from close range, but the strike was made by Emi Buendia, the little Argentine who left both Eliot Anderson and Jair Cunha for dead with a lovely change of pace before digging out a low cross that meant the Villa striker couldn't miss.
The bedlam had barely subsided when Morgan Rogers forced Ortega into a save. Villa were rampant; Forest hanging on. Periera tried to stem the tide by bringing on the more circumspect Ryan Yates for McAtee at the break. Yates' first two contributions saw him foul Buendia and Torres.
Villa were ahead in the 58th when the referee was summoned to the pitch-side monitor to decide whether Nikola Milenkovic's irrational shirt tug on Torres as they challenged for Buendia's low right-wing cross warranted a penalty.
It did. Buendia did the rest by sending a low spot-kick past Ortega's right hand.
Forest were in disarray. McGinn, a non-stop ball of energy all night, scored the third goal in the 77th minute when he collected Watkins' knock-down to beat Ortega with a perfectly-placed shot into the far corner.
The Scottish midfielder needed just 156 seconds to find the back of the net again when he collected Rogers' pass to once more find the bottom corner.
(3-5-2): Martinez 6; Cash 7, Konsa 7, Torres 7 (Luiz 90), Digne 7; Lindelof 6 (Bogarde 74, 5), Tielemans 7; McGinn 8 (Bailey 90), Rogers 7 (Mings 90), Buendia 8 (Sancho 86); Watkins 7.
(4-4-1-1): Ortega 6; Cunha 5 (Murillo 88), Milenkovic 5, Morato 5 (Bakwa 71, 5), Williams 6; Hutchinson 6 (Sinclair 88), Dominguez 5, Anderson 5, McAtee 5 (McAtee 46, 5); Jesus; Wood 5 (Lucca 71, 5).
: Glenn Nyberg.
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